Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) managed to collect over Rs 540 crore as property tax during the financial year 2020-2021. The collection fell short of the budget estimate of Rs 630 crore. However, the Abhay Yojana launched on December 15 helped the civic body collect around Rs 159 crore of the total collection.
The lockdown affected people from all walks of life. Municipal Commissioner Abhijeet Bangar gave relief to the citizens by implementing a property tax protection scheme. From April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, a total of Rs 544,66,13,742 was collected as property tax. “Citizens of Navi Mumbai responded well by paying their property tax and realizing that civic amenities are provided through the property tax collected despite the outbreak of a pandemic,” said a senior official from the Property Tax Department.
He added that citizens took advantage of Abhay Yojana that started on December 15 and concluded on March 31. A total of 19,891 property tax holders deposited Rs 159,16,29,593 under the scheme.
Under Abhay Yojana, the civic body waived off 75 per cent of the penalty for delayed payment if the payment was from December 15 to March 15 and a 50 per cent rebate was given from March 16 to March 31. The civic body waived off Rs 78.86 crore as penalty under the scheme.
On March 30 and March 31, a total of Rs 46. 42 crore was collected as property tax. Interestingly, of the Rs 540 crore collected, Rs 400 crore was collected in the period from December to March.
