A Khata Property Tax and B Khata Property Tax are levied on the residents of Bangalore and fall under the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which is Bangalores municipal corporation. The A Khata and B Khata are nothing but documents certifying the ownership of a property via the taxes paid by the owner to the BBMP. A Khata means accounts, and A Khata and B Khata denote the two types of property accounts kept by the BBMP.
A Khata:
The A Khata came into being to streamline Property Tax collection by the local authorities. The A Khata denotes a document that certifies that the property owner has duly paid relevant property taxes to the BBMP and is in ownership of a legal property. With an A Khata in hand, property owners can apply for trade licenses, building licenses or avail loans on the property. Your property is effectively legal if you have the A Khata documents, which will be required when you go for any other financial transaction related to your property in Bangalore.
B Khata:
The B Khata is a separate register maintained by the BBMP that lists the illegal properties (as per Karnataka High Court order in December 2014) that have ownership in the city of Bangalore, even when the civic charges for the property have been paid by the owner. The B Khata pertains to the Section 108A of the Karnataka Municipal Act, 1976 that was amended in 2009. This register enables the BBMP to collect taxes from buildings constructed illegally, which include properties in violations of bylaws, constructions in revenue land or unauthorized layouts, or properties without completion or issuance certificates. The B Khata properties can be upgraded to A Khata properties by fulfilling a few criteria such as payment of all property taxes till date, DC converted property and payment of Betterment Charges as levied by the BBMP.
The major differences between A Khata and B Khata Properties are as follows:
- A Khata properties are legal in the eyes of the law while B Khata properties are effectively illegal even if the ownership documents for the property are in order.
- A Khata property holders can easily resell or transfer ownership of their property while this is not possible for people holding only the B Khata documents.
- Khata properties can have trade licenses while B Khata property holders are barred from having trade licenses.
- A Khata properties have construction permits and can expand the properties while B Khata properties are restricted from doing this.
- Loans can be availed on and for A Khata properties while B Khata properties cannot avail loans.
- A Khata is the final document certifying that your property is completely legal and available for trade while B Khata is the temporary document that needs to be upgraded to A Khata to avail the complete set of services associated with owning a property in Bangalore.
- B Khata properties have to satisfy various criteria such as DC converted property, payment of all property taxes till date and betterment charges to be paid to BBMP to convert them to A Khata properties.
B Khata properties used to enjoy some of the rights that A Khata properties have but the recent Karnataka High Court order given in December 2014 nullified whatever legal status they had. As of now, B Khata properties are categorized as illegal properties and have to be converted to A Khata properties to avoid complications in trading, construction and transferring of the property.