Force One headquarter of Mumbai police commissionerate is ready for the past two months, but the Maharashtra State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation Limited (MSPHWCL) — who constructed the building — is unable to hand over the possession to the Force One officials. Reason: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) charges property tax on police buildings, but the police department wants an exemption. The new Mumbai police commissioner office building too is yet to be occupied for the same reason.
This, however, wasn't the case when public works department (PWD) had been constructing police buildings, as PWD was exempted from paying property tax. As a result, the police had brought the matter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's notice who in principal has agreed that no police building will have to pay property tax.
According to the sources in the MSPHWCL, once the structure is ready for occupancy, BMC charges property tax and then the occcupancy certificate (OC) is given by the corporation. OC is essential to get water connections for the structure. "We have completed work of Force One headquarter at Goregaon, a police building in Worli, a police quarter at Santa Cruz and the new Mumbai police commissioner office building at Crawford Market. But unless we get an OC we cannot give occupancy of these structures to the users. We also had a word with the BMC stating that property tax should not be charged from police department as even the Bombay Police Act states that police buildings should not be charged property tax. However, the corporation stated that their law does not reflect any such exemption for police department," said the source.
"While in city limits the property tax is charged by the corporation, in districts it is charged by zilla parishads. Since now all major police building projects are coming to the MPWHC for construction, it was essential to get a solution for this problem. The matter was then brought to the notice of the CM. The CM has in principal fully agreed exemption of property tax from police buildings across the state. A law might soon be brought out in this regard soon," said the source.
