4 years after Shiv Sena’s property tax waiver vow, Mumbai civic body now says it will issue bills

While the Sena, earlier, had blamed the BJP government for not clearing the entire proposal for waiving property tax for structures less than 500 square feet, there has been no development on the same in the past year even though Sena is the ruling party in the state

Four years after the Shiv Sena promised voters it would waive property tax of structures up to 500 square feet and won the Mumbai civic polls, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said it would issue property-tax bills to owners of such structures, with a partial waiver.

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The Sena-led BMC’s decision, even as it said the state government in 2019 had waived only the general tax component, would mean owners of 1.85 lakh properties (all less than 500 square feet) in the city will be issued bills worth over ₹500 crore, considering the BMC issues notices for unpaid taxes of the past two years.

While the Sena, earlier, had blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Devendra Fadnavis government for not clearing the entire proposal for waiving property tax for structures less than 500 square feet, there has been no development on the same in the past year even though Sena is the ruling party in the state.

The Sena, ahead of the 2017 civic polls, had made a promise that if voted to power, it will waive off property tax for structures up to 500 square feet. However, the decision could not be implemented as the waiver mandated the state government to amend the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act. Following this, the BJP-Sena government led by Fadnavis in 2019 made the required amendment. However, the rider was that the waiver would only be limited for the general component of the tax, which is 10-20% of the total.

However, now the BMC has decided that it will issue bills to such property owners as the state government has waived off only the general component. P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said, “We have given the bills for printing and now all property owners will be issued bills for property tax. In case of properties below 500 square feet, we will issue bills, excluding the general component of the tax.”

Velrasu added, “We had sought opinion from our law department and it has given us the opinion that excluding the general component, the BMC should levy property tax from owners of properties below 500 square feet.”

Property tax is one of the biggest revenue avenues for BMC. It collects annually around ₹4,000 crore to ₹5,000 crore in property tax, and the outstanding amount is around₹1,500 crore.

The BJP has now claimed that the Sena has backtracked on its promise made to voters. The BJP on Monday staged a walk-out from the BMC’s law committee meeting, where there was a discussion on levying property tax for structures below 500 square feet.

Atul Shah, BJP corporator, said, “We walked out of the meeting as the BMC is not implementing the order, regarding the 500 square feet waiver. We asked BMC to clarify. The BMC said they will look into the matter after getting details. After this, we [BJP] decided to walk out.”

Harshad Karkar, Sena corporator, said, “The BJP is doing only politics on the waiver of property tax. In the BJP-Sena government also, we had taken up this issue. Also, in the coming days, we are confident that our state government will completely waive off property tax for owners of properties below 500 square feet.”

Meanwhile, Nikhil Desai, a civic activist said, “The Sena should have clarified it earlier in 2017 that only the general tax component will waived and not complete property tax. But now due to slowdown caused by Covid-19, if BMC cannot waive entire property tax, the Sena should promise to implement a complete waiver in the coming years.”