Bengaluru’s E-khata woes: Errors, delays and size inaccuracies frustrate owners, trigger surprise property tax notices

BBMP’s e-khata rollout faces backlash as errors in names, parking size, and tax data force Bengaluru homeowners into prolonged delays and disputes

Despite assurances of a smooth, swift rollout, Bengaluru’s e-khata system continues to frustrate homebuyers, with incorrect entries, property tax disputes, and sluggish corrections stretching the promised 48-hour process into weeks or even months. Homeowners report frequent errors in names, built-up areas, and parking details, while inaccuracies in property size declarations are triggering surprise tax notices.

Bengaluru’s e-khata rollout is plagued by errors and delays, with fixes taking weeks instead of the promised 48 hours, causing tax disputes for homeowners. (Representational Image) (Unsplash )

While the city's municipal corporation, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), claims that e-khatas are issued within two days, homeowners say that errors in names, built-up area, and car parking details are significantly prolonging the timeline. In many cases, a flawed e-khata process forces residents to return to local revenue offices, defeating the goal of a paperless process.

A simple typo, car parking details and weeks of delay

Take the case of Sanjana Pai, whose e-khata was issued under the incorrect name Sanjana Rai. While the certificate was generated within a week, getting it corrected has already taken more than two weeks, and counting.

“Many e-khatas are being issued with basic spelling or data errors, and there’s no online correction feature,” said Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar, director of the Karnataka Homebuyers Forum. “Buyers have no option but to visit the BBMP office, often multiple times, to get these mistakes fixed.”

He said that something as routine as car parking details has become a roadblock for e-khata. “In one case, a buyer entered 160 sq ft of parking in the application, but the final e-khata showed no car parking at all. These are small errors that should be easily fixed online, but they’re not.”

Tax disputes over parking spaces

Errors in property size declarations are also creating a new class of issue, surprise tax notices. Kiran Kumar, vice president at Hanu Reddy Realty, shared a case where a resident had self-declared their car parking as 500 sq ft in the property tax system. Upon review, authorities found the space to be over 800 sq ft and issued a notice demanding additional tax.

“Buyers often do self-assessment in good faith, but they aren’t tax experts,” Kumar said. “BBMP issues the e-khata, and then sends a notice saying they owe more. This creates confusion and financial stress.”

“In my application, I clearly entered 160 sq ft as the car parking area. But when the final e-khata was issued, it showed no mention of parking at all,” another homeowner said. “There’s no option online to request a correction, so I was forced to visit the BBMP office in person to sort it out.”

He said such errors, though seemingly minor, can have serious implications when it comes to resale, taxation, and ownership records. “If a digital system can’t account for basic details and doesn’t offer a way to fix them, it defeats the purpose of going paperless,” the homeowner said.

“Every citizen should pay property tax for the flat area, which is written in his sale deed and what he paid for when he purchased the flat. Every flat purchaser knows how many sq feet he paid for, and precisely for those many sq feet only he needs to pay the property tax,” BBMP said in a statement on August 9.

“What some citizens have been doing is that they declared less area in the property tax system than what is in their sale deed. Now in ekhata, as sale deeds are obtained from Kaveri, therefore area therein has been compared with the area for which tax was paid. This was done electronically as Kaveri gave the area of the flat in the sale deed,” the statement said.

Kaveri online services portal is the official website of the state government for accessing property registration, encumbrance certificates, e-stamping, and document verification.

New SAS numbers creating tax burdens

One of the buyers also recounted his own ongoing struggle. More than 15 years ago, he registered a SAS (Self Assessment Scheme) number for his property and began paying property tax. When he applied for the e-khata recently, instead of linking it to the old SAS number, BBMP issued a new SAS ID, triggering a fresh five-year tax liability.

“Instead of linking the old tax record, they created a new one and asked me to pay five years of property tax again,” he said. “I’ve raised a complaint, but I’m still running pillar to post. I haven’t received my e-khata yet since my application in February.”

A list of queries has been sent to BBMP. The story will be updated once a response is received.

System needs urgent fixes, say experts

Homebuyers and experts say the lack of error-handling tools, the absence of validation steps, and arbitrary tax reassessments are undermining public trust in the e-khata process.

“If a certificate comes with errors and there’s no correction mechanism online, it’s not truly digital,” said Padmanabhachar. “There needs to be better integration with SAS records, more transparency in tax calculations, and a clear route for corrections, without forcing citizens into government offices.”

What is an e-khata?

E-khata is an electronic version of the traditional khata certificate, introduced by the BBMP in Bengaluru and other local bodies in October. This digital record is available online, where property owners can apply for, download, and verify their khata without visiting the municipal office.

To obtain a khata, owners need only upload key documents such as their Aadhaar number, sale or registered deed number, property photograph, and an Encumbrance Certificate covering the period from the property’s registration date to October 31, 2024.

Since launching the digital khata system in October 2024, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has processed and issued approximately 2.75 lakh e-khatas, according to official data. As of July, BBMP has received over 50,000 applications for new khatas, and BBMP chief commissioner Maheshwar Rao has instructed officials to process these as a priority, noting that timely approvals could significantly boost property tax revenue.