Drumming up tax payers in Bangalore: Shaming defaulters

[punjabiboy]

The band of drummers, with their matching shirts and bright bandanas, is beating out a fast-paced tattoo to a small appreciative audience.

With the sound of the drums echoing off the walls of the surrounding buildings, it feels as if it could be an impromptu street performance - but it's not.

This is tax collecting Bangalore-style.

Fed up with companies refusing to pay their tax bills, the city has gone one better than merely sending out reminder letters.

Instead it is striking back, shaming local tax avoiders, through the use of music.

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About 50% of the firms we have targeted have come to us to pay up their taxes”

Shivakumar CM
Bangalore Municipal Corporation
Bangalore has a clear message to offenders: Pay up or we send in the drummers, and then everybody will know what you've done wrong.

And so far, it seems to be working.

"People like this. They gather to hear the drums playing," says one of the band, 19-year-old drummer Shankarantha.

The band's co-ordinator is K C Chellaiah, who is standing to one side, watching his team in action. He says while the audience might like it - those targeted do not.

"The company owners get afraid of it when the troupe starts beating the drum," he says.

"Usually the firms have a good name in their area and when this comes to people's attention and the real picture comes out of it, they start paying their tax immediately - they respond immediately."
Bangalore is India's third-largest city, and as the centre of the India's hi-tech industry, its economy is worth some $9.6bn (£6.1bn) a year.

But it has a problem with unpaid taxes, and so six months ago it started employing its teams of drummers.

And it is proving to be steady work for the musicians.

Band member Shankarantha says that he and his fellow players have been called out to beat the drum for Bangalore's tax department four times in the past few days.

"Initially we didn't get a good response," says Shivakumar CM, an executive engineer with Bangalore Municipal Corporation.

"Since then we have seen that about 50% of the firms we have targeted have come to us to pay up their taxes.

"We're getting a good response from companies which have been embarrassed," he says.

"This is the primary motor of the drum-beat programme."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22772431

pay taxes anotherwise face drummers on ur gate

 

[punjabiboy]

drummers at wipro door ........

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Great idea to wake up tax defaulters. Now when will the drummers reach Vijay Mallya's door at Kingfisher House?

 

[punjabiboy]

Tom-tom to shame property-tax evaders
If you live in South and some parts of West Delhi (which fall under the jurisdiction of South Delhi Municipal Corporation – SDMC) and have not paid your property tax for several years, then don’t be surprised if you wake up to the loud sound of dhols blaring outside your home.
Unable to make several property owners pay the tax in past several years, the SDMC has decided to shame the defaulters by engaging 'dhol wallahs' to play outside the homes and inform the entire neighbourhood the tax defaulters.

BN Singh, collector and assessor of SDMC informed the civic body’s standing committee
that the department has no option left but to go back to the traditional method of ‘drum beating’ to recover taxes.

“These procedures were used earlier, but were discontinued. We will go back to the traditional method of shaming tax the defaulters,” he said.

The move comes in wake of a decline in tax collection last fiscal. In 2010-2011, tax collection was Rs 322 crore, while in 2011-2012, it went down to Rs 313 crore. The number of tax payers too came down from 4.42 lakh to 4.24 lakh.

However, the corporation has collected Rs 229 crore at tax revenue during the fist quarter of the current finacial year. “In the same quarter last year, the corporation collected Rs 266 crore. There are lakhs of property owners who are still not paying taxes,” Singh said.

The standing committee of the corporation discussed ways to augment the income from property tax as it is the biggest source of revenue for the civic body. Apart from drum beating, the corporation has also decided to make a list of the biggest defaulters and seize their properties for the purpose of auctioning. In the unified MCD (before it got divided into three parts in April this year), the corporation had identified 12 properties for auctioning but after the trifurcation, the corporation has started afresh.

“We will identify property owners that have not paid taxes for years and owe more than Rs 5 lakh to the corporation,” said Rajesh Gehlot, chairman of the standing committee.
Tom-tom to shame property-tax evaders