BMC collects only 9.5% of annual property tax target since February

"Every year, collection of property tax picks up pace after November. Last year, we had a record collection and I believe the same thing is going to happen for FY 2022-23 as well," said an official.

Property tax is the second largest source of revenue for the BMC.

With only two days left for the first half of the ongoing financial year (2022-23) coming to an end, the BMC has been able to recover Rs 665 crore of property tax, which is just 9.5 per cent of its annual target of Rs 7,000 crore announced during the presentation of the budget in February. Last year, during the the same period, BMC had recover Rs 603 crore of property tax.

“Every year, collection of property tax picks up pace after November. Last year, we had a record collection and I believe the same thing is going to happen for FY 2022-23 as well,” said an official.

Property tax is the second largest source of revenue for the BMC. In 2021-22, the civic body was able to recover Rs 5,792 crore against its annual target of Rs 5,400 crore.

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Officials said that since BMC elections were supposed to be held in March, they had expedited the collection process from November 2021, which had led to higher recovery this year. They added that similar steps will be taken this year considering that BMC elections are supposed to take place early next year.

Also, following the state government’s decision of not increasing property tax for this year, the BMC is set to face a shortfall of Rs 1,080 crore in revenue.

Former Congress corporator Ravi Raja said that property tax collection this year is likely to surpass the target, since the BMC has started sending pending bills to property owners who have outstanding for the past two years. “Many property owners haven’t received bills of taxes after the pandemic broke out in 2020. Now, the BMC is sending out bills to them by clubbing the outstanding amount, which will eventually accelerate the overall collection amount this year,” Raja said.

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