Bangalore Development Authority incurred Rs 3,500 cr ‘loss’ by not collecting betterment tax: CAG

The “lackadaisical effort” of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in raising internal revenue from legally enforceable avenues indicated “poor financial management”, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said, while pointing to Rs 3,500 crore “loss” by not collecting betterment tax.

The CAG’s compliance audit report on Department and Public Sector Undertakings for the year ended March 2022, was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday.

The audit observed that as against the projected betterment tax of Rs 3,307.55 crore from Arkavathy layout and Rs 195.72 crore from Nada Prabhu Kempegowda Layout (NPKL), the BDA could collect only Rs 3.22 crore from April 2019 to March 2022.

BDA did not make efforts for collection of betterment tax as the procedures prescribed under the Act were not followed, it said.

“BDA could collect (up to March 2022) only Rs 3.22 crore out of Rs 3,503.63 crore betterment tax projected from Arkavathy Layout and NPKL despite having legal authority and necessary approval from the government,” the CAG said in its report.

Further noting that the BDA has paid Rs 34.66 crore as interest on outstanding loans in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the report said, “which was avoidable had the BDA made earnest efforts to realise potential revenue sources such as betterment tax.” Highlighting the disparity in release of grants to temples, the audit report observed that out of total 2,856 religious institutions in the selected 11 districts, which received grants during the period from 2017-18 to 2021-22 from the government, only 592 were Muzrai (govt) temples and the remaining 2,264 were private temples.

The grant outlay to Muzrai temples was Rs 44.48 crore as compared to Rs 187.81 crore to the private temples, it said.