Property tax collection for the financial year 2021-22 by the BMC rose by almost 10% over the previous fiscal. Till Thursday noon, the BMC had collected property tax of Rs 5,581 crore (expected to increase marginally at the final tabulation time).
Last time, owing to the pandemic, the BMC was able to collect Rs 5,090 crore as property tax till the end of the financial year which this time it hoped to surpass with the Covid situation in the city coming under control.
Assistant municipal commissioner Vishwas Mote in charge of the BMC’s assessment and collection department said that this year the civic body was keen on surpassing last year’s collection.
In the 2021-22 civic budget, the BMC commissioner had announced a target of Rs 5,400 crore, which, as the collection figure shows, has been surpassed. Property tax is currently one of the biggest sources of revenue for the BMC.
In the 2022-23 civic budget announced last month, while no new taxes were announced because of the poll year, the civic body proposed a provision for imposition of penalty on unauthorised constructions, to be twice the amount of property tax.
This also comes as the BMC will have to forgo Rs 462 crore due to property tax waiver for those living in homes below 500 sq ft.
Recently a BMC staffer from the assessment department who is two months away from retirement, had gone to paste a notice outside a building in Fort’s Hamam Street area for non-payment of dues and was allegedly beaten up by the owner. An FIR was registered at the MRA Marg police station.