Since the scrapping of the octroi tax, property tax became the major source of revenue generation for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)
BMC decides to hire drummers to name and shame defaulters
After successfully increasing collection with the 'band, baja humiliation' method, the civic body has moved on to the next step — seize valuable assets of the adamant residents who are yet to pay their property tax. The bmc has warned that the officials will seize vehicles, furniture, electronics, paintings, etc, under the distress warrant and auction them if the defaulters fail to pay in five days.
Since the scrapping of the octroi tax, property tax became the major source of revenue generation for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
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However, there has been a decline in tax collection due to a slowdown in the real estate industry.
After managing to collect barely 60 per cent of their target for 2019-20, the BMC hired drummers to remind the defaulters to pay up. Initially, the BMC was collecting on average '10 crore per day.
Since the drummer tactic, the daily collection almost doubled to '20-R25 crore. They now plan to raise their daily target to '70 crore.
The BMC still has to recover '1,862 crore by the end of March, and to meet the target it has decided to boost the per day average collection for this fiscal from '10 crore to '70 crore.
A civic official said, "The action is taken under relevant sections of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act 1888. But women's wealth like jewellery will not be seized."
The warning is for the owners of both residential and commercial complexes. On Tuesday, the BMC seized two helicopters of Mesco airlines, which has owed over '1 crore, from Juhu.
Advocate Vinod Sampat, who deals with property matters, told mid-day that the civic body has the right to seize the defaulters' assets. He also criticised the BMC's tax collection system, which he said lacks proper accounting structure. He added that the BMC does not act until the amount has accumulated over the years.
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