BBMP to GBA — what actually changed for Bengaluru apartment owners and associations

Since the BBMP was dissolved, three questions have gone round every Bengaluru committee WhatsApp group. Is our khata still valid. Do we have to re-register anything. Who do we pay now.

The Act answers all three, and none of the answers is the frightening one. What almost nobody is discussing is the fourth thing it does: it gives your association a named statutory route onto the committee that sets your ward's spending priorities — and because nobody has been elected yet, that window is open right now.

What actually happened, and when

The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 is on the statute book as Karnataka Act No. 36 of 2025. It received the Governor's assent on 23 April 2025, was published in the Karnataka Gazette Extraordinary on 24 April 2025, and came into force on 15 May 2025 — section 1(3) leaves the commencement date to a Government notification, which is why the Act's name says 2024 and its number says 2025.

Section 361(1) repeals the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Act, 2020 (Karnataka Act 53 of 2020) and the Rules under it. That is the law the BBMP ran on, so the BBMP as a single 198-ward corporation is gone.

In its place, section 5(1) empowers the Governor to establish City Corporations, capped by proviso at seven, and no area qualifies without a population of at least ten lakh and a density of at least five thousand per square kilometre. Five were constituted on 2 September 2025 — Bengaluru East, West, North, South and Central — each with its own council, mayor and commissioner, coordinated by the Greater Bengaluru Authority, an apex body chaired by the Chief Minister.

The practical point buried in that: the GBA coordinates. The body that bills you, maintains your road and answers your association's letters is your City Corporation.

Your khata, licences and registrations are still valid

This is the question that has caused the most unnecessary worry, and section 361 answers it about as plainly as statutes ever do. After repealing the BBMP Act, it provides that anything done under it —

So an A-khata or B-khata issued by the BBMP is a certificate obtained under the repealed Act, and it continues in force — as does your association's trade licence, any sanctioned plan, and any registration effected with the BBMP. Section 361 also preserves rights and liabilities already accrued, and applies section 6 of the Karnataka General Clauses Act, 1899.

Nothing in the Act requires an apartment owner or an association to re-apply for a document the BBMP had already issued. If someone tells you otherwise, ask them which section says so.

What the Act does change is who holds the record: section 2(34) defines "Khata" as a record of immovable property maintained in the property tax register by the City Corporation, and section 2(35) makes the "Khatadar" the person in whose name the khata is recorded by the City Corporation. So future khata work — transfers on sale, corrections, an e-Khata application — goes to your Corporation, not to a city-wide body.

Property tax: the basis changed, not just the letterhead

This is the substantive change for every flat owner, and it is getting far less attention than the renaming.

Section 147(1) provides that property tax is levied by each City Corporation, by resolution, at rates within limits set by the Government in consultation with the Greater Bengaluru Authority, and — this is the part that matters — "following the capital value system based on the Guideline Value of the buildings, properties and lands notified under section 45B of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957."

Tying the tax base to the stamp-duty guidance value is a different basis from the one Bengaluru property tax was computed on under the repealed Act. So a revision of guidance values now feeds through to property tax, and your association's annual budget should not assume this year's per-flat figure is next year's. Rates are also no longer purely local: each Corporation passes the resolution, but only within limits the Government sets.

Three further provisions committees should know:

• Section 147(4) halves the tax on a self-occupied residential building. The tax payable "shall be reduced by fifty percent". For a mixed owner-occupied and let-out complex, whether each flat is recorded correctly is worth real money to individual owners.
• Section 148(1) sets two equal instalments, due by the end of May and the end of November. Pay the full year in one instalment within a month of the financial year starting and a rebate of up to five percent is available; the Government may extend that rebate window to the end of May.
• Section 147(5) gives you a dispute route. Doubts about zone classification, capital value or class of property are clarified by the Commissioner of the City Corporation, and that decision may be appealed to the Chief Commissioner of the Greater Bengaluru Authority, whose decision is final.

One transition point that avoids panic: section 361(2) allows a tax already imposed under the repealed Act to continue to be levied and recovered as if that Act had not been repealed. So the existing demand does not evaporate in the gap before a Corporation passes its own section 147(1) resolution.

Nobody has been elected yet

Worth stating plainly, because it explains why your letters go to officers rather than councillors. The corporations were constituted in September 2025, but council elections have not been held — the Supreme Court has directed they be completed by December 2026, and mayoral and corporator seats are vacant meanwhile.

Section 131 is the machinery. On dissolution the Government appoints an Administrator, and section 131(3) is sweeping: during that appointment the Corporation and all authorities under it "shall cease to exercise any powers", and every function is discharged by the Administrator or officers they authorise. Section 131(1) also requires an election within six months of dissolution — a timeline plainly not met.

So you are dealing with an appointed officer, not an elected representative. Which brings us to the part worth acting on.

Your association can claim a seat on the Ward Committee

Section 100(2) constitutes a Ward Committee for every ward, chaired by the ward's Councillor, with fourteen other members. Among them, sub-clause (b)(iii) requires at least two members representing Residents' Welfare Associations, "whatever name called", subject to three conditions:

1. its registered office is within that ward;
2. it "shall have been actively engaged in its activities for not less than three years"; and
3. it is a registered Association, comprising individuals who serve in a fiduciary capacity.

Of the fourteen, seven are nominated by the City Corporation; the other seven — including the RWA representatives — are "selected by random draw of lots from among the eligible applicants". So this is an application, not a lobbying exercise: get eligible, apply, and you are in the draw.

The timing is the opportunity. Section 101 requires members to be nominated within thirty days of the completion of the City Corporation election. That election has not happened. An association that gets its paperwork in order before the polls is in the pool when the window opens; one that starts afterwards has thirty days.

What the seat is actually worth. Section 103 gives the Committee real subject matter: preparing the Ward Development Scheme and annual Ward Development Plan for allotment of funds and ensuring those funds are properly used, convening a Ward Sabha of all registered voters, water supply and sewerage maintenance, the location of new street lights and public sanitation units, parks and open spaces, and informing the Corporation of encroachment of its land — the statutory hook for an encroachment problem outside your gate. It meets monthly (s.102(1)), with a one-third quorum.

And the honest limits, which matter more than the pitch. Section 103(4) says the Committee's "recommendations shall be advisory in nature." The Chairperson — the Councillor — has "authority to veto any decision" under the proviso to section 102(8). The term of office is only twenty months (section 100(4)). This is a seat at the table where priorities are argued, not a vote that binds the Corporation. Judged against having no seat at all, it is still worth having.

The registration question to settle before you apply

Here is a genuine ambiguity, and it lands exactly on the issue that already divides Bengaluru associations.

Section 2(2) defines "Association" for the purposes of this Act as a body "duly registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960". But the ward-committee condition in section 100(2)(b)(iii)(c) asks only for "a registered Association by whatever name called". Many Bengaluru apartment associations are registered not under the Societies Registration Act but under the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972 — which is, for most apartment complexes, the correct Act to be registered under.

Whether a KAOA-registered association satisfies the ward-committee condition, or whether the section 2(2) definition governs it, is not resolved on the face of the Act. If your association wants that seat, this is the question to put to an advocate before the election, not after.

What to do this quarter

1. Confirm which of the five Corporations you fall under, and use that name on correspondence.
2. Do not re-apply for anything the BBMP already issued (s.361).
3. Check each flat's self-occupied or let-out status is recorded correctly — s.147(4) is a fifty percent difference.
4. Diarise end of May and end of November, plus the early-payment rebate window.
5. Get ward-committee-eligible now: registered office inside the ward, three years of demonstrable activity, and a settled answer on your registration statute.

Common questions

Is my BBMP khata still valid after the GBA came in?

Yes. Section 361 of the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act repeals the BBMP Act, 2020 but expressly provides that a certificate obtained, licence granted or registration effected under it is deemed to have been done under the corresponding provision of the new Act and continues in force unless superseded. Nothing requires you to re-apply for a khata the BBMP had already issued.

Who do I pay property tax to now?

Your City Corporation — East, West, North, South or Central — not the Greater Bengaluru Authority. Section 147(1) makes each Corporation the levying body, by resolution, within rate limits the Government sets in consultation with the GBA. The GBA coordinates; it does not bill you.

Has the property tax calculation changed?

The basis has. Section 147(1) puts the tax on a capital value system based on the Guideline Value notified under section 45B of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 — that is, the stamp-duty guidance value. Section 361(2) lets an existing levy continue to be collected until superseded, so the change arrives with each Corporation's own resolution rather than all at once.

Can our apartment association get onto the Ward Committee?

Section 100(2)(b)(iii) reserves at least two of the fourteen non-chair seats for Residents' Welfare Association representatives, if the association's registered office is in the ward, it has been active for at least three years, and it is a registered association whose office-bearers serve in a fiduciary capacity. Eligible applicants go into a random draw of lots. Committees are nominated within thirty days of the Corporation election, which has not yet been held.

In short

• The BBMP Act, 2020 is repealed (s.361) by Karnataka Act 36 of 2025, in force 15 May 2025. Five Corporations were constituted 2 September 2025; s.5(1) caps the total at seven.
• Your khata, licences and registrations continue in force (s.361). Do not re-apply for anything the BBMP already issued.
• Property tax now follows capital value on the Stamp Act guidance value (s.147(1)), levied by your Corporation within Government-set limits, with a 50% reduction for self-occupied residential property (s.147(4)) and instalments due end of May and end of November (s.148(1)).
• Assessment disputes: Corporation Commissioner, then the GBA's Chief Commissioner, whose decision is final (s.147(5)).
• No council is elected yet — an Administrator holds all powers (s.131(3)); elections are directed for December 2026.
• Your association can claim a Ward Committee seat (s.100(2)(b)(iii)) with a registered office in the ward and three years of activity, filled by random draw within 30 days of the election. Advisory only, and the Councillor can veto (ss.103(4), 102(8)) — still the room where ward funding is prioritised.
• Settle your registration statute first: s.2(2) defines "Association" via the Societies Registration Act, 1960, while many associations are registered under the KAOA, 1972. Unresolved on the face of the Act.

Sources

Every section quoted above was checked against the text of the Act itself, not secondary commentary.

• The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 (Karnataka Act No. 36 of 2025) — India Code.pdf)
• The Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024 — full text (PRS Legislative Research)
• The Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024 — legislative history and summary (PRS Legislative Research)
• The Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972 (India Code)