by THO
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to allow Mantri Mall to operate. The civic body shut the mall down last week for allegedly not paying property taxes. The mall authorities also claimed that this is the fifth time the BBMP has stopped business operations in a busy mall located in Malleshwaram.
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According to reports, the Mantri group stated that it would pay ₹20 crore to the BBMP on or before July 31 for property tax. Soon after the doors of Mantri Mall were locked, the authorities moved to civil court, which ordered the management to pay at least half of the property tax immediately to run the operations. BBMP claimed that ₹41 crore was the pending property tax amount on Mantri Mall.
However, the management of Mantri Mall moved to the high court, stating that the pending property tax is only ₹18.5 crore, and they will settle the amount by the end of July. They also claimed that a loss of ₹7 crore has been incurred every day as more than 250 shops inside the mall are not operating. The jewelry stores inside the mall reportedly faced heavy losses as they could not do business during the Akshya Tritiya last week.
Last Friday morning, BBMP officials slapped the establishment with seizure notices, and a notice banner was put in front of the mall. The management was asked to halt the operations immediately.
