BMC extends deadline to auction properties to recover property tax dues

The BMC, earlier in October, had announced that it will auction four properties at Chunabhatti, Chembur, Kalbadevi and Kandivali to recover pending property tax — a move that will generate BMC a minimum revenue of Rs 120 crore.

The deadline for registering for the online auction was set for October 29. However, authorities maintained that a new deadline has been set for November 6.

“Owners of the two properties at Chunabhatti and Kandivali have settled their bills. So, we will go ahead with auctioning two properties instead of four,” said an official.

One of the properties that will be auctioned includes a plot of land owned by the Housing Commissioner of Bombay with a base price fixed at Rs 37 crore with an area of 3,000 square meter and a privately owned house with shops at south Mumbai’s Kalbadevi with a base price of Rs 26.01 crore with an area of 1,648 square meter.

The BMC had set up an external agency to carry out the bidding process.

Civic officials said that if the authorities fail to get responses from enough bidders then a re-auction of the property may be taken up again by them.

The officials said that for a successful auction a response from a minimum of three bidders needs to be recorded in the system.

The civic authorities levy property tax which is like a cess on all the real estate as well as commercial properties that are located within the jurisdiction of the civic body.

Once the property owners default paying taxes the civic authorities send them notices by adding penalties. Meanwhile, if the owners continue not paying the tax amount then these properties are seized or attached temporarily and following legal proceedings they are put out for auction. The last time a property was auctioned was in 1984, civic sources confirmed.

The property tax is among the highest sources of revenue for the civic body and this year, the BMC had collected property tax of Rs 6,011 crore against an annual target of Rs 6,200 crore, till March 31.

The BMC authorities maintained that this year the authorities made the highest ever property tax collection in BMC’s history.

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