At Rs 5,135 crore, BMC collects record property tax in a year of pandemic

Mumbai's civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has collected its highest-ever property tax in the Financial Year (FY) 2020-21. This comes in a year when BMC had taken an internal loan of Rs 5,876 crore to meet budgetary expenditure.

At 5,135.43 crore, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collected its highest-ever property tax in the Financial Year (FY) 2020-21. This comes in a year when BMC had taken an internal loan of Rs 5,876 crore to meet budgetary expenditure. “Recovery of property tax was a major challenge this year in the wake of the Corona outbreak. However, due to proper planning and effective implementation of that plan, 98 per cent of the target of Rs 5,200 crore has been achieved [sic]," said a BMC press release. In FY 2019-2020, the property tax collection was Rs. 4,161 crore. The civic body took harsh actions to make this record collection. The actions ranged from attaching properties of those who do not pay the property tax amount to the Municipal Corporation despite repeated requests and notices, disconnection of water supply, confiscation of movable property such as vehicles and goods etc.