BMC to defaulters: Pay your property tax asap or your property would be legally seized!

Mumbai: BMC to defaulters: Pay your property tax asap or your property would be legally seized!.In march, After the Maharashtra government cleared a bill to write-off property tax on residential properties of up to 500 sq ft in Mumbai, the governing civic body of Mumbai is now focusing on the impending recovery of tax from other property owners. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said this is the last chance for defaulters to pay taxes with 2 per cent of the monthly fine, the failure to pay the tax  will lead their properties to be attached.

The governing body is preparing a list of defaulters of the last financial year. “The BMC till April 5 has recovered Rs 5,792 crore. The defaulters are allowed to pay tax with a 2 per cent fine every month. Till last week (April 5-10) we recovered Rs 15 crore after the deadline,” officials from the BMC’s Assessment and Collection (A and C) Department said. “This fine will rise every month. If a defaulter pays pending property tax after two months, he needs to pay an additional 4 per cent of his bill.” Said the official as the bmc is giving a last chance to the defaulters.

Joint Municipal Commissioner Sunil Dhamne said. “The BMC is now preparing a list of defaulters of the last financial year. As soon as the list is final we will start sending notices to them, and This notice will be for the attachment/seizure of the property. We will give some time to defaulters to pay their dues. If defaulters fail to do so, BMC can attach their property.  “Preparation of the defaulter list is in the final stage. In the first phase, we will focus on commercial property tax defaulters. We will send notice to the first 100 defaulters.” Said by the official of A & C dept.

Another official from bmc also said “Around 16.14 lakh residential properties below 500 sq ft get 100 per cent relief from property tax, causing BMC a loss of Rs 462 crore per annum,”. As property tax is a major revenue source for BMC, for the last two years we are taking strict action against defaulters,” he adds.

The civic body team conducts regular follow-ups and inspection like sending reminder notices to taxpayers, tax collection has been rising, said the officer.. The billing system is computerised automatically so the pending fine amount is added to the total bill. “When we send notice of attachment defaulters will get the time of 2 to 3 weeks. Another official said that the Defaulters can even pay dues in this duration with a 2 per cent month

  Property tax recovered by BMC till April 5 : Rs 5,792 cr