Bengaluru's Drone Crackdown: Property Tax Evasion Uncovered and What Owners Need to Know

For years, a quiet habit existed among a section of property owners across Indian cities. Declare a smaller area, pass off a commercial floor as residential, and trust that nobody would look too carefully. In Bengaluru, that habit has met a very firm end. The Greater Bengaluru Authority tax recovery drive, running on drones, GPS field teams, and automated digital cross referencing, has wrapped up its second round of inspections. The numbers are hard to ignore. In this second phase alone, officials flagged property tax evasion Bengaluru 2025 worth nearly Rs 318 crore across approximately 13,600 properties. Combined with the first round, the total now stands at Rs 688 crore across 23,600 properties. For any property owner in the city, this story carries direct relevance.

The Bengaluru property tax evasion crackdown did not begin with this second phase. The first round identified close to 10,000 properties with either under declared built up areas or misreported usage, amounting to approximately Rs 370 crore in evasion. Around 49,000 show cause notices went out in that phase. The second round then uncovered Rs 318 crore more across 13,600 additional properties with roughly 67,000 further notices issued. Most properties identified across both rounds had been quietly under declaring dues for an average of five years, meaning the liability landing on each defaulting owner now includes five years of compounded interest and penalties together.

The GBA drone GPS survey is far more thorough than a casual aerial scan. GPS enabled field teams conduct door to door visits across all five GBA city corporation zones using a mobile application that records each property's GPS coordinates, usage type whether residential, commercial or mixed, floor wise built up area, and number of floors. Around 10,000 properties are surveyed daily through this method. All captured data flows into a backend system where a quality control team runs a full verification pass before cross referencing everything against high resolution drone imagery and Self Assessment Scheme declarations. Any mismatch between declared figures and what the technology confirms triggers an automated show cause notice without requiring any human intervention in the final step.

When you look at what the GBA property tax notice 2025 cases actually involve, two patterns emerge clearly. The first is plain under declaration where a property measuring 4,000 sq ft has been declared at 2,500 sq ft and taxes paid on the lower figure year after year. The second is more calculated. Properties actively rented out to businesses have been declared as residential to take advantage of the lower residential tax rate. Commercial properties attract significantly higher rates than residential ones and the annual saving from that kind of misclassification, accumulated across five years, now arrives as a single compounded liability with penalties already built in.

One case from Kengeri Sub division puts the financial impact in concrete terms. A property owner declared a built up area of 2,800 sq ft. When drone survey property tax Bengaluru teams verified the site, drone imagery confirmed the actual area at 5,458 sq ft, nearly double. The declared annual tax came to roughly Rs 5,657. After correct assessment it became Rs 15,495. Once cess, penalties, and interest for multiple under declared years were added, the total payable crossed Rs 22,633 for that one property. Scale that kind of discrepancy across 23,600 identified properties and the Rs 688 crore combined figure becomes entirely logical.

The civic body Bengaluru has issued show cause notices through physical letters, SMS alerts, and IVRS calls. Property owners have 15 days from receiving the notice to file an objection through the online portal or pay the revised tax amount through the official payment website. The reason some owners receive multiple notices at once is straightforward. Each year of under declaration requires a separate notice. A property misreporting for five years receives five notices simultaneously, one per financial year.

The Bengaluru property tax evasion drive is a direct response to a serious revenue gap. The GBA has set a tax collection target of Rs 6,700 crore for 2025 to 2026 but actual collections remain well short with limited time in the fiscal year remaining. The structural shortfall is estimated at over Rs 3,100 crore and is driven primarily by tech parks, large commercial complexes, high rise residential developments, and developers whose declared figures have not reflected actual constructed area for years.

Bengaluru property owners notices for tax evasion under SAS scheme cannot be quietly set aside. Seven properties have already been auctioned to recover long pending arrears. E Khata accounts of persistent defaulters are being blocked, preventing any sale, transfer, or registration until dues are cleared. A blocked E Khata is a real and immediate obstacle for any owner planning to transact their property in the near future.

How drone survey is changing property tax collection in Indian cities is a question Bengaluru has now answered with hard data. One in every six properties surveyed showed a discrepancy. That figure confirms this was never a small problem. The GBA model is scalable, replicable, and other municipal bodies across India are watching closely.

The Greater Bengaluru Authority tax recovery drive using GBA drone GPS survey technology has uncovered property tax evasion Bengaluru 2025 worth Rs 318 crore across 13,600 properties in round two, taking the combined figure to Rs 688 crore across 23,600 properties. With GBA property tax notice 2025 notices going out via SMS, letters, and IVRS and a strict 15 day response window, the civic body Bengaluru has made its position clear. How drone survey is changing property tax collection in Indian cities is no longer a future possibility. Bengaluru has answered it firml