BMC looks to levy penalty on illegal structures

Panel formed to identify structures and frame guidelines to levy penalty to submit report before April.

The committee will work on a method of calculating the penalty and a time-frame for which it will be imposed.

With close to 56,000 illegal structures in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set up a committee to frame guidelines on levying a penalty on such structures as a means of recovering property taxes. The committee, headed by deputy municipal commissioner B R Marathe, is expected to submit its report to the municipal commissioner before April this year.

In an affidavit submitted to the Bombay High Court (HC) last year, the civic body had stated that there were 56,000 illegal structures in the city.

According to senior officials from the assessment and collection department of the civic body, the committee has been given the task of setting a framework to be followed in case of levying penalties henceforth.

Apart from determining the procedure for identifying and “defining” illegal construction, the committee will work on a method of calculating the penalty and a time-frame for which it will be imposed.

“If a building is under-construction now, we cannot declare it unauthorised without following a certain process, and the committee will specify this process. In many cases, people living in unauthorised flats continue to avail the BMC’s services without paying taxes. We have to streamline this procedure,” said Milin Sawant, deputy municipal commissioner, assessment and collection department, BMC. Sawant, who is also a member of the committee, however, said the committee would not be looking at regularisation as an option.

Another civic official from the assessment and collection department said, “The civic body is also looking at it as an alternative source of income in the coming years.”

Property tax collections are one of the main sources of revenue for the BMC. Of its total annual revenue, Rs 2259.66 crore is expected in the current financial year through property tax.

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According to BMC data, the civic body has collected Rs 2200 crore as property tax till the last week of December.
“We will submit the report to the municipal commissioner after which a circular will be issued to all the wards to follow the common procedure. We are looking at effective implementation from April 1, 2015,” said Marathe.

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