Wondered why the skyline looks cleaner of late? Citing huge arrears pending for more than two years from outdoor advertisers, the civic body is tearing down all commercial hoardings in the city even if they are licenced.
The BBMP is issuing notices to those managing 5,427 hoardings in eight zones, demanding advertising tax arrears along with penalty, totalling Rs. 321 crore. Till date, BBMP has brought down nearly 1,200 hoardings, sources said.
The drive has not gone down well with the commercial hoardings lobby.
Sources in BBMP said that just about 1,800 of the total 5,427 hoardings are legal. However, the civic agency has not collected advertisement tax even from the owners of hoardings whose licences were renewed in June 2014. “Differentiating between legal and illegal hoardings is difficult. Based on a survey by the Revenue Department, we are sending demand notices to all 5,427 commercial hoardings. We will collect tax along with penalty from illegal hoardings too, and arrears from legal hoardings. Once we collect the tax arrears, we will start renewing licences according to the bylaws. This will eliminate illegal hoardings,” explained C. Nagaraj, AC, Advertising, BBMP.
So far, BBMP had collected a mere Rs. 99.16 lakh in arrears through the online payment gateway as against demand notices for Rs. 321 crore.
Reduced number?
While an earlier survey had identified 6,119 hoardings, which included 1,800 legal ones, civic officials refused to explain how the number came down to 5,427.
Explaining the mechanism for raising demand notice for illegal hoardings for which no documents are available, Mr. Nagaraj said that during the survey, civic officials had noted how many years the hoarding has been in the spot.
“The oldest for which we have raised a notice dates back six years,” he said.
However, officials aware of the clout of the advertisement lobby, point out that such things are done at the discretion of officials, which normally lead to corruption.
“A better way to ascertain this detail would be to check when they got a Bescom connection,” an official said.
Rashmi Mahesh, Special Commissioner, in-charge for advertising was not available for comment despite repeated attempts by The Hindu to contact the official.
Advertising fee
Of 5427 hoardings, around 1,800 are legal
As per earlier survey, total hoardings was 6,119
Total worth of demand notices issued: Rs. 321 core
Tax demand for illegal hoardings based on inspection, not Bescom connection
Illegal hoardings will not be legalised as soon as they pay up
For licence, they will have to comply with by-laws
