Mumbai: BMC hopes to collect Rs 1,500 crore property tax in 23 days

Those having a carpet area of up to 500 square feet are exempted from paying property tax. File pic/Shadab Khan

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials aim to collect Rs 1,500 crore property tax in the next 23 days. They are hopeful of collecting property tax of around R6,000 crore this financial year by March 31, 2023. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sunil Dhamane said, "We are hopeful that we can collect around Rs 6,000 crore. Till date, we have collected Rs 4,500 crore from property tax."

According to civic chief I S Chahal's budget speech of 2023-24, the BMC revised the target of property tax collection from Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 4,800 crore. There were two main reasons for the decrease in property tax. Firstly, exemption of property tax to residents having a carpet area of up to 500 square feet, and secondly, the revision in property tax that was due in 2020-21, but was deferred due to Covid-19 that year and also in 2021-22. In the year 2022-23, the government of Maharashtra, to help citizens, accepted the proposal of BMC to defer the revision of property tax by another year, Chahal had said in the speech. The BMC had collected Rs 5,792 crore as property tax in the last financial year.

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BMC has issued bills of property tax to residential property tax payers up to 500 square feet for 2019-20. "Although the decision of exemption of property tax was taken in 2019-20, that year only general tax was exempted. BMC has issued bills to recover education cess, trees cess, road cess, water benefit tax, and sewage benefit tax which are included along with property tax. Later the following year the state government abolished all taxes, cesses, etc, included in property tax," said a BMC official.