BMC has not yet dispatched Property bills with ‘Waiver’ which was announced 5 months ago.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

It has been more than five months since the announcement of a new property tax bill spanning 500 sq ft or less from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been done, meanwhile, this has not yet happened by the municipal authority. The press release announcing the delivery of the proposal was also released on August 6.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP had indicated that they had an election agenda about waiving off property tax for small houses (upto 500 sqft). On 8 March this decision was approved at the General Body Meeting and the Maharashtra Cabinet. However, only Section 140(C) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, covering the general tax element nearly 10-30% of the total tax, as amended by the government resolution.

Other components such as water tax and sewage tax, BMC education cess, state education cess, employment guarantee cess, tree cess, road tax etc., constitute between 70-90% of the property bill. For a span of five months, the BMC had been in continuous consultation with the state government. Finally, on August 6, it released a press note stating that the bills would only be provided with the deduction of the general component. But bills have not yet been issued even after 40 days of the statement.

“The governing parties just want to trick people. They announced the waiver before Lok Sabha elections to achieve popularity,” said Ravi Raja, BMC opposition leader, adding: “Even though the tax on the property is the main source of revenue for the BMC, the bills are not dispatched.

Mumbai has 15 lakh houses measuring 500 sq ft or less based on information from BMC’s assessment and collection department. Because of exemption from property tax for such properties, the civic body is probable to lose around Rs 350 crore of revenue collection. Following Octroi’s closure, property tax has been the main source of income for the BMC. In one year, BMC collects approx Rs 5,000 crore worth of property tax. In 2018-19, the municipal government collected Rs 5,082 crore and projected the Rs 5,100 crore for 2019-20.