Need more time for property tax bill: BMC

Plans to introduce the capital value based property tax system has thrown the civic body in a limbo. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will fail to meet the deadline of March 31, when the property tax bills are dispatched to the citizens every year.

“We have requested the state government to extend the deadline to dispatch property tax bills to the citizens. We have demanded extra time to compile various factors to calculate the capital value of a property,” said SS Shinde, joint municipal commissioner
state government on April 2010 had announced that the old rateable system should be switched to capital value.

Civic officials stated that the draft business rule to implement the capital value of a property has not been sanctioned by the municipal commissioner yet. A three-member panel committee was formed to draft the rules of new property tax.

“The civic administration has to study the recommendation. The rate at which the capital value has to be calculated also needs to be figured out. We want the deadline to be extended to give officials ample time to look after the key points,” Shinde explained.

However, the date by when the BMC can process the new bills is not known.Officials state that the deadline can be extended to a year as the civic body can not send the property bills on old rateable system again.

The new draft rules for the property tax were first introduced in 2006. The state and the BMC were also contemplating to implement it last year.