BBMP cracks down on Manyata Tech Park; seizes movable assets

BENGALURU:Armed with a Rs 273 crore tax bill and a High Court order, a team of BBMP officials seized movable property from the administrative office of the Manyata Tech Park on Monday.
A team led by BBMP Taxation and Finance Standing Committee chairperson M Shivaraju seized computers, chairs, televisions and office furniture following a June 9 notice that was served to Manyata Promoters, asking the tech park to cough up Rs 273.95 crore of property tax dues.

In May, the Karnataka High Court ruled in favour of the BBMP and directed the civic body to collect tax dues with interest."The tech park is to pay Rs 10 per sqft, but they've paid only Rs 8. Since 2010, the outstanding tax plus interest comes up to Rs 273 crore," Shivaraju said.

A senior official from Manyata Promoters said:"We will appeal against the order. Let the BBMP open the books and see. Most IT parks pay Rs 8 per sqft."

The 125-acre tech park, which houses some of the world's biggest IT firms Microsoft, IBM, Philips, Cognizant etc - had paid Rs 8 per sqft under the Self-Assessment Scheme from 2008-09 to 201516 in the category of 'non-residential buildings without centralised air conditioning'.

The civic body, however, claims that the tech park falls under another category of `non-residential building with central air conditioning' as a result of which it should pay Rs 10 per sqft.

In the May 25 judgement, Justice L Narayana Swamy upheld the rule that allows categorisation of non-residential buildings based on facilities like centralised air-conditioning in industrial units and technology parks. The June 9 notice to Manyata Promoters, issued by Byatarayanapura sub-division assistant revenue officer Satish KR, explains how the actual tax dues of Rs 83 crore has gone up to Rs 273.95 crore.

"The civic body is empowered to levy 24% interest rate under Section 108A (13) (b) of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act," Satish said.