BMC aims to recover property tax worth ₹200 cr in 2 days as fiscal year draws to end

Mumbai: With just two days left in the ongoing financial year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set a target to recover a minimum of ₹200 crore on March 30 and 31. The move is aimed at meeting the annual target of ₹5,400 crore through property tax collection.

Till the afternoon of March 29, the BMC officials recovered ₹5,108 crore (94.5%) of the ₹5,400 target that the civic body had set up last year. Earlier in February 2021, BMC had set a target of ₹6,000 crore, however, it lowered keeping the second wave of Covid-19 in mind. In FY 2020-2021, the BMC was able to recover ₹5,094 crore against a target of ₹5,300 crore.

Senior officials of the BMC said that the rate of collection surged owing to the forthcoming elections which were supposed to take place in March-April this year.

“In the next two days, we have set a target to recover of minimum ₹200 crore. Also, keeping in mind the election season, we had expedited the collection drive since October last year. This gave us more time to strategise our methods and helped us increase the recovery amount in a slow and steady approach,” said Vishvas Mote, assistant municipal commissioner and in charge of the Assessment and Collection (A&C) department in BMC.

Till March 29, 2021, the BMC had recovered ₹4,500 crore and ₹500 crore was collected in the last two days.

“This year also we can achieve a maximum amount of ₹500-600 crore in last two days and may be able to overachieve our target,” said Sunil Dhamane, joint municipal commissioner.

According to the latest BMC data, out of the 24 municipal wards, so far the highest recovery of ₹482.96 crore has been made from K/East ward which covers Andheri East and Jogeshwari areas, followed by ₹438 crore from H/East ward which covers the Santacruz East, Bandra East and Kalanagar areas.

The civic body has also been able to recover ₹426 crore from G/South ward (Parel, Worli) and ₹421 crore from K/West ward (Andheri West, Versova, Juhu). In A ward, which covers affluent areas like Cuffe Parade, Nariman Point and Marine Drive, the BMC have been able to recover ₹211.89 crore or 87 percent against a target of ₹239 crore.

Meanwhile, recovery in municipal wards like R/North (Dahisar) has exceeded the target amount. Civic officials have maintained that till Tuesday afternoon, R/N has recovered ₹70.73 crore against a target of ₹70 crore. The BMC officials have also been able to recover ₹183 crore or 96 percent against an annual target of ₹189 crore from the R/Central (Borivali) ward.

“In the Borivali and Dahisar areas there are mainly residential properties and large industrial and commercial spaces are also less in proportion yet we have been able to recover our target amount,” said a senior official.