Mumbai home buyers in new buildings will get property tax bills separately

The BMC won’t need to take action against entire housing society for late tax payment.

Home buyers purchasing flats in new buildings will now receive property tax bills separately.

The BMC will tax individual flats and commercial establishments, which have received the Occupation Certificate after April 1 this year. (HT File)

After it was revealed that builders/developers are defaulting property tax bills, which later had to be borne by flat owners, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now generate property tax bills of each flat instead of the entire society.

The BMC will tax individual flats and commercial establishments, which have received the Occupation Certificate after April 1 this year. This move will help the BMC to avoid taking action against the entire housing society for non-payment or late payment of taxes. Homebuyers can also individually avail ‘early bird scheme’ and not depend on the society.

There are around 2,75,000 buildings in the city that are under the property tax ambit, through which, the BMC collects Rs5,200 crore yearly. However, in addition, the BMC also has an increasing number of property tax defaulters. In many cases it was revealed that due to few flat owners or builders, who did not pay the property tax on time, the entire society/establishment was sealed.At present, individual flat owners submit property tax bill to the society, which is then submitted to the BMC. The civic body this year sealed more than 200 properties for non-payment of property tax.

In addition to this, the BMC is also moving away from sealing entire properties and instead will only seal common amenities like swimming pools, gardens within societies, playgrounds/gardens, parking lots worth the defaulting amount. In a recent case, the BMC only sealed the parking lot of a Nepean Sea Road building to recover the property tax.