Intel has been warned by a Bengaluru (India) civic body, the Bruhar Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), to pay up on its property taxes or be ready to face problems. This is a part of the BBMPs exceptional drive to gather property taxes due from big offices that default on their taxes.
Garbage trucks at Intel doorsteps
On Monday upon arriving at their offices, Intel employees were stunned to see a line of garbage trucks loaded with waste at their doorstep. The doors of the IT major have been closed by BBMP authorities, and the civic body has been taking stern action against every known tax defaulter and has moved to the high court as well.
BBMP claimed that the standing advisory group on tax collection found that the chip maker defaulted on its property taxes between 2007 and 2008 to the tune of Rupees 34 crores (more than $5.1 million). Intel has challenged the claim by BBMP in court. Intel reportedly did not reply to notifications from the civic body, and then, the BBMP, with the assistance of legitimate documentation, was able to convince the court that Intel defaulted in paying its taxes.
As an interim measure, the court ordered the U.S. firm to pay half of the amount due by July 25. Since Intel overlooked a few warnings, the BBMP chose to arrive with waste vehicles at Intel’s doorsteps in an attempt to force a confirmation that they would pay the tax as soon as possible.
The issue is resolved now
A BBMP official said the chip maker had been calculating its taxes on the basis of not having a fully air conditioned office, but the truth is that its office is fully air conditioned. Intel asked the court for some time to pay the taxes, which the high court has granted.
“The standoff was resolved and the garbage trucks were taken back after Intel authorities gave a written undertaking that they would pay half of the dues claimed by BBMP, by August 28, as per an interim order of Karnataka High Court,” the authority said.
The BBMP won a similar case against Manyata Tech recently and is in the process of gathering Rupees 350 crores ($52.61 million) in property taxes from 73 commercial entities.
The agency has relied on creative measures against defaulters in past years as well. In 2013 when Indian tech giant Wipro defaulted on paying Rupees 19.28 crores ($2.9 million) to the civic body, authorities hired drum beaters to stand under Wipro billboards and drum away, leaving Wipro executives red-faced.
Photo by karmadude
