Announcement on loudspeakers to help BMC recover property tax dues?

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come up with an idea of sending dholwalas (drummers) on streets to make public announcements on loudspeakers about

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come up with an idea of sending dholwalas (drummers) on streets to make public announcements on loudspeakers about property tax, the civic body announced on Wednesday.

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Property tax defaulters across the city owe about ₹15,000 crore to the civic body. In the upcoming fiscal year of 2020-2021, the BMC aims to recover ₹1,500 crore from these defaulters.

The civic body has planned the exercise of playing dhol and making public announcements at locations with a higher number of defaulters to make the owners aware about clearing the pending property tax. The civic body will warn defaulters of strict actions like disconnection of their water and electricity supplies and auctioning their properties in case if they don’t pay the property tax. The BMC has been banking heavily on property tax collection after income from octroi has gone after the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The civic body has undertaken several measures to recover outstanding dues such as early bird incentive scheme to attract people to pay property tax on time.