The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a challenging job ahead of it – collecting the pending property tax dues of Rs 19,874 crore for the fiscal 2020-21. This is almost equal to the civic body’s estimated total income for the year. Of the total pending amount, Rs 16,000 crore is stuck in various disputes, and the corporation has termed it as locked-up balance. Only around Rs 4,000 crore of the dues is recoverable.

The BMC had estimated a total property tax collection of Rs 6,768 crore in the 2020-21 budget. But now, the revised estimated income for fiscal 2020-21 is Rs 22,572 crore, out of which Rs 4,500 crore is to be derived from property tax. Till now, the BMC has collected R3,486 crore and it may draw the rest of the amount from commercial properties by March-end. But the real issue is with the pending tax of Rs 19,874 crore as on January 15, 2021. Out of it, Rs 15,878 crore is stuck in various litigations or are irrecoverable amounts, while R3,995 crore is recoverable.