Centre, state owe BMC over `155cr
Even as the BMC has set a March 31 deadline for citizens to pay property tax bills of the last three years, it hasn’t been able to collect property tax arrears worth crores of rupees from government agencies that have been pending since the last several years.
According to civic officials, the civic body is still awaiting payment of property tax bills of around `155 crore from both Central and state government offices in the city. Of these, around `147 crore worth bills are due from Central government agencies alone.
As per the data available with the civic assessment and collection department, arrears of `105.91 crore are pending with various Central government offices across the city. Other Central agencies like the Central Railway (CR), Western Railway (WR) and Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) still owe the BMC property tax bills of `5.23 crore, `4.42 crore and `31.43 crore respectively. When compared to the Central government agencies, the property tax outstanding with state government offices is much less at `8.24 crore.
Chief assessor and collector S. Agharkar said, “Efforts are on to collect the property tax dues from these government bodies. We are pursuing the matter with their officials.”
However, according to civic sources, it has always been an uphill task for the BMC to collect the property tax amount from these agencies. A civic official on the condition of anonymity said, “Some of the property tax bills have been pending for over 15 years. With constant follow-ups, we have been asking these agencies to pay up the dues. At least, state officials are considerate and have been paying on a regular basis, but Central agencies are still found to be rigid in this matter.”
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