B-Khata Could Not Be a Basis for Property Registration
Any land that has not been authorized for residential or commercial use by the state government is referred to as ‘revenue’ land. The property tax collected from such a building should be maintained in a separate register. The BBMP registers such property under what is called a B register. Site owners who had their revenue land converted by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) from agriculture land to non-agriculture land purposes had a relatively easy transition to the BBMP fold. To tap the vast catchment of revenue, the BBMP began advertising a ‘B’ register to draw property taxes from site owners who were to be extended the civic amenities, but had not been part of the BBMP earlier. However, over the years, the ‘B’ register has been mistaken to be a ‘B’ Khatha.
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B-khata is a Bogus
Bangalore BBMP commissioner Siddaiah said B-Khata could not be a basis for property registration. B-khata is just a register maintained by the BBMP to collect taxes from the revenue property holders. B-Khata is not considered as a valid Khata extract. The statement has put thousands of property owners in confusion as many of them are being encouraged by the Palike officials themselves to get the B-khata and get on with property registration and other transactions.
The B-khatha does not exist on paper. A serious effort would be required to tell people that there is no such thing as a ‘B’ Khatha. The issue came into focus when it was found that BBMP authorities issued B-Khatha for revenue sites although the Karnataka Municipal Council (KMC) Act did not mention about B-Khatha. This was considered a rampant violation of the KMC Act. Construction of many houses was in violation of the BBMP building by-law and KMC Act.
What is B-Khata?
There is nothing called a ‘B’ Khatha in the KMC Act, 1976. What has come to be known as ‘B’ khatha is the ‘B-Register’. The property tax collected from any land that has not been authorized for residential or commercial use by the state government and who had their revenue land converted by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) is maintained in a separate register called a “B-register”. However, over the years, the ‘B’ register has been mistaken to be a ‘B’ Khatha.
It has been noticed that some BBMP engineers and revenue officials have been encouraging people to build houses without the sanctioned plan if they have paid tax under the B register. The property owners are also convinced that they can get it regularized through Sakrama scheme. Khatha can only be extracted on a title deed and cannot be considered as being a title deed by itself. Khatha literally means an account, This Khatha is an account of a person who has property in the city. Obtaining a Khatha does not confer ownership of property, but confers the person who is liable to pay property tax. In case a property owner wants to sell his property, he will be required to transfer the Khatha.
