After the state government in March cleared a bill to waive property tax on residential properties of up to 500 sq ft in Mumbai, the civic body is now focusing on the pending recovery of tax from other property owners. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said this is the last chance for defaulters to pay taxes with 2 per cent of the monthly fine, failing which their properties will be attached. The civic body is preparing a list of defaulters of the last financial year. “The BMC till April 5 has recovered Rs 5,792 crore. The defaulters are allowed to pay tax with a 2 per cent fine every month. Till last week (April 5-10) we recovered Rs 15 crore after the deadline,” officials from the BMC’s Assessment and Collection (A and C) Department said. An official added, “This fine will rise every month. If a defaulter pays pending property tax after two months, he needs to pay an additional 4 per cent of his bill.”

List being prepared

“The BMC is preparing a list of defaulters of the last financial year. As soon as the list is final we will start sending notices to them,’’ Joint Municipal Commissioner Sunil Dhamne said. This notice will be for the attachment of the property. We will give some time to defaulters to pay their dues. If defaulters fail to do so, BMC can attach their property,” Dhamne added. An official of the A and C departments said, “Preparation of the defaulter list is in the final stage. In the first phase, we will focus on commercial property tax defaulters. We will send notice to the first 100 defaulters.”