Evading property tax? Wipro headed for legal battle with B'lore civic body

Wipro, India’s third largest IT company, has been threatened with legal action by authorities for allegedly not paying Rs 17 crore property tax as sought by the Bangalore municipal corporation.

Wipro said it was “exploring all legal options at its disposal to seek redressal” against any such move by the authorities concerned.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike alleged Wipro had not paid taxes despite repeated notices and has now slapped a final notice for payment, failing which the company faces legal action including seizure of movable property.

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“They still owe us Rs 16.47 crore in tax and dues, but despite sending them repeated notices, Wipro officials are not paying the amount. We have sent them the third and final notice, but still they are trying to buy time,” Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance Chairman M S Shivaprasad said.

The corporation, he said, could confiscate the movable properties of tax defaulters if they failed to pay even after being served with three notices.

Wipro termed the notice as “intimidatory tactics to collect money against unsubstantiated notice of payment” and said it was exploring all legal options to seek redressal.

The software giant has claimed that not only is the tax claim flawed but the manner in which BBMP officials tried to collect the tax is also illegal.

“On November 27, officials and corporators of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) arrived at Wipro’s Sarjapur campus without prior notice and resorted to highhandedness and arm twisting tactics for nearly seven hours. It was an illegal attempt to collect money against a notice for collection of property tax, which is not final and has been responded to by pointing out errors in data points and assumptions;” said Wipro in its statement, according to a CNBC-TV18 report.

It added that it was the second time in the past 11 months that BBMP had resorted to intimidatory tactics to collect money against, what it calls - an unsubstantiated notice of payment. "

These notices have been superseded with multiple fresh notices by BBMP itself, and the latest one is yet to be adjudicated. It is appalling and unfortunate that responsible leaders of the civic body would choose to deal with a responsible corporate citizen in this manner without being mindful of the process of “Natural Justice”. Such an approach adopted by BBMP is indeed a matter of great concern as they are resorting to these tactics when the matter is under review with the BBMP officials themselves," Wipro added.