Property tax collection up by 20 per cent for BMC in this fiscal

MUMBAI: With only one week left for the current financial year to end, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) revealed that it was able to recover only ₹4,762 crore in property tax amount since April 1 last year against the annual target of ₹5,400 crore.

Property tax is one of the primary sources of revenue for the civic body and figures shared by the Assessment and Collection (A&C) department of the BMC highlights that the revenue generated from property tax collection increased by 20 per cent, or ₹8,200 crore, in the current financial year, as the civic body was able to recover only ₹3,940 crore during this period last year.

Tax recovery dropped for the BMC ever since the pandemic began, as a result of which the civic body set a target to recover around ₹7,000 crore in property taxes this fiscal. However, this was later revised to ₹5,400 crore in February 2021 keeping in mind the possibility of more Covid-19 waves in the future.

Senior civic officials have attributed the surge in tax recovery to the systemic campaign and aggressive action that the BMC has been able to take against defaulters.

“The civic elections were supposed to take place during March this year, and keeping this in mind we had expedited the process of tax recovery from October itself. The advanced approach gave us more time to plan and work, resulted in increased collection at slower, yet consistent, manner,” said Vishvas Mote, assistant municipal commissioner and in-charge of A&C department.

Of the total amount, the highest recovery of ₹2,362 crore was made from western suburbs, followed by ₹1,401 crore from the island city and ₹999 crores from the eastern suburbs.

Out of the 24 municipal wards in India’s financial capital, the highest recovery of ₹435 crore was made from K/east (Andheri East) ward, followed by ₹404 crore from H/East (Bandra east) and ₹396 crore from K/West (Andheri west, Juhu, Ville Parle).

The data also showed that ₹202 crore was collected from A ward, which covers the affluent Cuffe Parade and Nariman Point areas, and ₹202 crore from D ward, which covers areas like Malabar Hill and Grant Road.

Mote also said that in the current fiscal, the BMC has taken action against several tax defaulters, which also expedited the recovery process.

Meanwhile, Ravi Raja, former Congress corporator and leader of opposition (LoP) in the BMC, said that the civic body failed to meet its tax targets set earlier as they gave rebates to some prominent builders in the city.

“There are some builders who owe the civic body property tax amounting to nearly ₹1,500 crore. The BMC doesn’t pursue them promptly, resulting in deficit in revenue generation,” said Raja.