Due to significant delays by the BBMP in generating Property IDs, many citizens eager to pay their property taxes have been unable to do so on time, resulting in accrued interest and penalties. In March 2024, the BBMP announced that property tax payments could be made even without a generated Property ID, introducing an online process for this purpose. However, the link for this process soon became non-functional, leaving citizens with little choice but to resort to bribery to obtain a Property ID and pay their taxes on time.
Why did this link stop working? Was it intentionally taken down? One theory is that bribes collected through the Property ID generation process are funneled all the way up to the ruling party’s coffers. With elections approaching, the ruling party couldn’t afford to forgo this source of funds. If this is true, it changes the way I think about the whole system – I always imagined that bribes from petty corruption went into the hands of government officers, not the party itself.
When the link was first shared, it was buried in a rolling vertical scroller on the BBMP’s tax website, bbmptax.karnataka.gov.in. It wasn’t mentioned or made visible on other related revenue department websites like bbmp.gov.in or rdservices.karnataka.gov.in. This lack of visibility raises suspicions – was it deliberately hidden to make it difficult for citizens to find?
Interestingly, the link was hosted on the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre site. This might be because the service relies on GPS data from that department for property identification. However, it’s unclear why that would prevent the link from being hosted directly on the BBMP site.
Who is responsible for maintaining this website? What can we do to restore the link? Would filing a grievance be effective? Could an RTI help shed light on the situation? Are there any repercussions for failing to maintain the website and not fixing broken links?
Additionally, it seems that generating Property IDs isn’t covered under the Sakala Act. Why is this the case?
I’m digging into this.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to AN for letting me know about the new procedure!