BMC attaches 16 properties of Mumbai metro for non-payment of property taxes

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has attached as many as 16 properties of the Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) including nine metro stations, car-shed plots and metro sub stations for non-payment of property taxes since 2013.

The MMOPL is the managing and administrative body of the Mumbai Metro Line - 1 that became operational in 2014. The 11.40 km long metro corridor connects Versova in the western suburbs to Ghatkopar in the eastern suburbs. There are a total 12 metro stations in this line which are spread across four municipal wards.

The notice for attachment of properties have been served by the K/East (K/E) and K/West (K/W) ward offices of the BMC, which covers the Andheri East and Andheri West areas as nine out of the 12 metro stations from this line fall in these two municipal wards. There are a total 24 properties of the MMOPL in these two wards out of which the BMC has already attached 16 properties till Friday and officials have said that the remaining eight properties will also be attached by end of this week or early next week.

The valuation of these 16 properties in terms of outstanding property tax amount is ₹142.18 crore. Some of the attached properties include the metro stations at Versova, Andheri, Azad Nagar, DN Nagar, JB Nagar and Marol metro station and Marol sub-station.

According to BMC data, MMOPL owes ₹300.76 crore worth of property tax including penalties to the BMC since 2013, out of which ₹220.30 crore are to be paid to K/W ward and ₹80.46 crores are to be paid to K/E ward.

The BMC officials said that MMOPL is a “Private Limited” organisation for which it is not exempted from paying municipal taxes, unlike government agencies.

“A majority of 74% of the total shares of MMOPL is owned by Reliance Infrastructure and remaining 26% of the shares are with MMRDA, this clearly establishes that MMOPL is a private agency and shouldn’t be exempted from paying municipal taxes,” said a senior official.

The officials furthermore added that MMRDA has leased out the land parcels which houses the metro carshed to the MMOPL, which makes the later agency responsible for clearing the outstanding tax amounts.

“We have given MMOPL 21 days’ time to clear the outstanding dues. If there is any delay, the BMC will disconnect the water supply and sewage lines, following which the procedure of seal and seizure of these buildings will be carried out,” said the official. The official also maintained that the BMC have been sending notices repeatedly for clearing taxes since March 2020, to the MMOPL.

Meanwhile, the officials of the MMOPL stated that they have been exempted from paying taxes by the Bombay High Court (HC). When HT contacted MMOPL for comment, the organisation in a statement said, “Section 520C of Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 empowers Government of Maharashtra (GOM) to issue instructions to BMC regarding policy to be followed by BMC in larger public interest. Based on orders of Bombay HC, the GOM directed BMC to provide exemptions to Mumbai Metro Line-1 from payment of local and property taxes being a public transportation project with effect of applicability of Mumbai Metro Act (16-10-2009). The BMC local ward offices are yet to comply with orders from GOM,”

Property tax is one of the primary sources of revenue for the BMC and during the 2021-22 civic budget, the BMC had set up a target of collecting property tax worth ₹5,400 crore and till March 10, the BMC had been able to collect ₹4,571 crore.

List of Mumbai metro stations attached with their outstanding tax amount

Marol Metro: ₹13.02 crore

Versova Metro Station: ₹11.85 crore

Andheri Metro: ₹11.85 crore

Airport Road Metro station: ₹10.20 crore

DN Nagar Metro Station: ₹10.63 crore

Azad Nagar Metro Station: ₹7.78 crore

JB Nagar Metro Station: ₹7.77crore

Western Express Highway (WEH) Metro Station: ₹5.65 crore

Marol Metro Substation: ₹85 lakh