Govt bodies yet to pay property tax dues of Rs 3,000 cr to BMC

As a result, the civic body had extended the last day for paying property taxes to May 25, from its usual deadline of March 31.

Meanwhile, the BMC’s data shows that an outstanding of Rs 3,085 is pending from several government entities.

The MMRDA owes the highest property tax due of Rs 2042.15 crore, which includes Rs 790.66 crore as penalty for non-payment of outstanding.

The MHADA owes the BMC Rs 245.93 crore including Rs 88.45 crore in penalties.

The Mumbai Police owes property tax of Rs 113.15 crore, inclusive of Rs 45.44 crore in penalties.

Alongside them, the Bombay Port Trust (BPT) owes property tax worth Rs 30.7 crore to the BMC, including Rs 19.41 crore in penalty, while the railways owe Rs 8.31 crore including Rs 4.27 crore in penalty.

Besides these entities, the BMC’s data show the central government owes a total of Rs 293.86 crore to the civic body including Rs 146.21 in penalties, while the state government owes Rs 351.23 crore including Rs 167.44 in penalties.

The property tax rates are calculated based on ready reckoner rates of a property in a given area.

At present, civic officials is on a drive to recover the pending property tax dues, since till March 31, the authorities have been able to recover Rs 3,195 crore, against an annual target of Rs 4,500 crore.

During the past one month, the civic authorities have sent letters to multiple contractors including those involved in metro rail works for clearing the taxes.

“Many of these dues are outstanding since 2010-12. The BMC send them notices every year, while some entities pay partially. However, the lump-sum is yet to be recovered. This year also, we have issued them fresh notices and we can’t do much since they are also government entities,” said a civic official.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from MMRDA told the Indian Express that for properties owned by them there is a rule that civic authorities should impose only 50 per cent of property tax.

“MMRDA is responsible for running the metro rail and mono rail, which comes under the Indian Railways Act, 1989. The act states that our properties should be taxed under the same tariff of railway properties, which is Re 1 for every square meter. Besides this, the MMRDA has also spent money in setting up housing entities for PAP, for which an outstanding over Rs 3,000 crore is owed to us by BMC and we have told them to adjust our dues from the property tax amount and pay us back only the balance amount,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Mumbai Police said, “We have escalated the matter to the Home ministry for further action,”.

Another spokesperson from MHADA said, “There is a window of three months from the date of receipt of bill to make the payment. We have got the bills and payment will be made by May 25,”