Pay property tax or face legal action: BMC

You could face legal action if you don’t pay any pending property taxes before March 31, the civic body has warned all property owners in the city.

You could face legal action if you don’t pay any pending property taxes before March 31, the civic body has warned all property owners in the city.

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“Legal action could be in the form of a fine or worse, property could be seized and auctioned off,” said a civic official from the civic assessor and collection department (A and C), which has issued the advisory.

There’s more: the civic body says that property owners cannot appeal against the tax bills at any forum, as a brand new capital-based property tax structure will be implemented from April.

The property tax income of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the second largest source of revenue after octroi. However, it is still much behind its expected target, with a shortfall of Rs 600 crore.

The civic body is expected to reach its target collection of Rs 2,800 crore till March 31 – in the next 10 days.

Interestingly, the civic body itself delayed sending out property tax bills this year as there was confusion whether to charge the tax as per the existing structure or new tax structure that would be based on capital value of the property. The bills were sent in November, a month later than usual.