Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities on Thursday seized movable properties of hotel chain JW Marriott for failing to pay property tax for last four years. It was returned after the five-star hotel paid outstanding dues of Rs. 5.59 crore within two hours.
JW Marriott Hotel on Vittal Mallya Road is among major property tax defaulters listed out by BBMP, the New Indian Express reported. The civic body seized sofas, chairs, desks and computers of the hotel on Thursday morning. But before the officials could leave the premises, the hotel management sought a meeting and cleared the dues.
"The hotel management gave us two demand drafts for Rs. 5.59 crore, which we en-cashed in two hours," M. Shivaraju, BBMP's Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance chairperson was quoted as saying by the Hindu.
BBMP has named 25 property tax defaulters and the civic body plans to target one of them every week. The aim of conducting the drive is to recover Rs. 150 crore.
BBMP has also been removing illegal structures for the past seven to 10 days on the basis of powers granted under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act. The civic body has identified 1,923 properties which require to be demolished.
So far, over 800 encroached properties have been demolished. The total number of properties that requires to be demolished is 1,101. The properties are in the locality of Mahadevapura (619), Yelahanka (328), Kormangala (3), RR Nagar (8) and Dasarahalli (128), the Bangalore Mirror reported.
