Mumbai: The financial year will end in two weeks but the BMC is yet to recover Rs 3,306 crore of property tax. In a last ditch effort, the civic body has cracked the whip on 142 defaulters and a plan is being worked out to expedite the collection. A list of top 10 defaulters with pending dues of Rs 147.24 crore was announced on Thursday. Some of these are real estate developers and corporate houses.
The property tax bills for the current fiscal were delayed due to the legal complexities in the BMC’s retrospective tax assessment. After receiving a nod from the state cabinet, fresh bills were issued on February 27 without a hike. However, the delay badly hit the collection. The assessor and collection department could add only Rs 1,194 crore to the BMC’s kitty against the target of Rs 4,500 crore.
Civic officials handling the issue said that the defaulters will face strict action, including sealing of their properties. “Some of them have not paid their dues for more than a decade. The overall amount of unpaid taxes is huge. We are currently focusing on the recoverable amount that is undisputed and are following up on the issue of disputed amounts as well,” said a senior civic official. He added that officials are visiting the defaulters and some of them have even settled their dues by giving cheques and demand draft.
Property tax is the second-highest revenue source for the civic body. The revenue from property tax for the current financial year has been revised to Rs4,500 crore from the initial estimate of Rs 6,000 crore.
