Khatha is an account of the assessment of a property that records the details of a property such as size, location and its built-up area. These are assessed to quantify the property tax that is levied by the government. It is also a kind of identification of the property owner who is primarily liable for the payment of the tax. It is required while seeking a building or a trade licence or a loan from banks. These documents are essentially required as it is mandatory for all property owners to pay their property tax.
The B Khatha, in actuality, does not exist. It is merely a record maintained by the BBMP in which property identification numbers are entered into a register called the ‘B’ register. This keeps a record of dues paid by property owners to the civic agency.
State Government constituted the BBMP by merging seven City Municipal Councils (CMCs). At the time of merger, BMP was collecting property tax on the basis of Annual Rental Value under the optional Self-Assessment System, whereas for the CMCs, Town Municipal Councils (TMC) were collecting tax under the capital value system under the provisions of the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964 and the villages were collecting tax under the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993.
Following the merger, it was felt necessary to bring in a uniform property tax policy in the entire area that comes under the purview of BBMP. Therefore, the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 was amended on 5th March 2009, by inserting a new section 108A, to provide for the collection of property tax on the basis of value per unit area. The new section 108A gives the detailed process for the assessment of property tax. After this, the BBMP encountered a situation. It found that several constructions were unauthorized as they were found to be constructed on agricultural land (lands not converted) or were built in violation of building bylaws or no occupancy or completion certificates had been issued (The last mentioned circumstance was mostly in respect of group housing colonies, apartment complexes etc.).
Now this posed another problem for the BBMP. Many properties were unauthorized while they enjoyed the civic facilities provided by the agency. If allowed to escape the property tax net, they were bound to benefit! In order to ensure that all buildings are to be enumerated for property tax, a suitable provision was made under sub section 3 of Section 108A. This enabled BBMP to levy and collect the property tax even from a building constructed in violation of the provisions of the building byelaws or constructed in an unauthorized layout or in a revenue land or from a building occupied without issuance of occupancy or a completion certificate (except buildings constructed illegally in Government land, land belonging to any local body, any statutory body or an organization owned or controlled by the Government).
The property tax collected from such buildings is to be maintained in a separate register. This is the ‘B’ register, and the Khatha issued under this register is the B Khatha. As soon as the intervening irregularity is resolved, or an non-agricultural occupation of land is regularized, ‘B’ Khatha is transferred to the ‘A’ Khatha register. Section 108 A clearly states that the levy and collection of property tax under sub-section (3) does not confer any right to regularise violation made, or title, ownership or legal status to such building and such buildings shall always be liable for any action for violation of law in accordance with the provisions of this Act or any other law.
Converting B Khatha land to A Khatha:
Things to keep in mind while converting B Khatha to A Khatha:
1) DC converted property should be received
2) Tax must be paid till current date
3) Betterment charges for the conversion property need to paid to BBMP.
Solution : To avoid purchasing B Khatha properties and prefer A Khatha to have comfortable position in dealing future financial transaction hurdles.
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