article: With the sound of the drums echoing off the walls of the surrounding buildings, it feels as if it could be an impromptu street performance - but it's not. This is tax collecting Bangalore-style. Fed up with companies refusing to pay their tax bills, the city has gone one better than merely sending out reminder letters. Instead it is striking back, shaming local tax avoiders, through the use of music. Bangalore has a clear message to offenders: Pay up or we send in the drummers, and then everybody will know what you've done wrong. And so far, it seems to be working. "People like this. They gather to hear the drums playing," says one of the band, 19-year-old drummer Shankarantha. The band's co-ordinator is K C Chellaiah, who is standing to one side, watching his team in action. He says while the audience might like it - those targeted do not. "The company owners get afraid of it when the troupe starts beating the drum," he says. "Usually the firms have a good name in their area and when this comes to people's attention and the real picture comes out of it, they start paying their tax immediately - they respond immediately." By Yogita LimayeBusiness reporter, BBC News, Bangalore When we went with the drummers to one company located in south-east Bangalore, dozens of people came out of their homes and offices to see what was going on. The lorry that carried the drummers had big banners on the front and sides displaying the name of the company that had evaded tax. However, no-one from the company was present at the office, and civic officials told us this was probably because information about the drum beating had leaked to them somehow. But the authorities did not call off the drumming. In fact they said the main purpose of the drive was to attract the attention of the company's neighbours and to try to shame the firm into paying up. Bangalore's civic body isn't the only one to adopt this method to try to recover taxes. The Delhi city corporation has launched a similar drive, and some years ago in Patna, the capital city of the central India state of Bihar, eunuchs were deployed to sing outside shops that had not paid taxes. 10 things you might not know about India Bangalore is India's third-largest city, and as the centre of the India's hi-tech industry, its economy is worth some $9.6bn (£6.1bn) a year. But it has a problem with unpaid taxes, and so six months ago it started employing its teams of drummers. And it is proving to be steady work for the musicians. Band member Shankarantha says that he and his fellow players have been called out to beat the drum for Bangalore's tax department four times in the past few days. "Initially we didn't get a good response," says Shivakumar CM, an executive engineer with Bangalore Municipal Corporation. "Since then we have seen that about 50% of the firms we have targeted have come to us to pay up their
summary: The band of drummers, with their matching shirts and bright bandanas, is beating out a fast-paced tattoo to a small appreciative audience.