Rs6,000 crore property tax outstanding

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seems to be lagging far behind when it comes to collecting property taxes. This despite property tax being amongst its major sources of tax collection, along with octroi.

Over Rs6,350 crore of property tax is outstanding in BMC’s accounts as of March 2010. The amount is a whopping 28% of the BMC’s 2011-12 budget.

The figures were revealed after an RTI application was filed by RTI activist Chetan Kothari seeking information on tax collected and outstanding, as well as other details such as the top ten defaulters over the past three years.

In its reply, the assessor and collector (A&C) department which handles the property tax collection revealed that the amount has been on the rise for the past two accounting years. In 2007-08, the amount outstanding was Rs3,482 crore while in 2008-09, it was Rs5,592 crore.

As per figures, affluent areas in South Mumbai have the highest amount as outstanding. This includes A ward, that comprises of Colaba-Cuffe Parade, D ward which includes Malabar Hill and the G/ South ward of Parel, where a lot of construction is coming up.

In addition, among the top ten defaulters who owe the BMC Rs635 crore, eight are in A ward, owing the BMC a total of Rs242 crore. This is despite the fact that A ward stands second-last in all 24 wards in terms of ‘number of taxpayers’. All defaulters have not paid since they have court cases pending.

“It is surprising that the BMC is not collecting taxes on time. A good number of infrastructure projects can be taken up with this amount,” said Chetan Kothari. When contacted, officers from the A&C department were unavailable for comment.