By Apurva Bhatt
From April,1 all residents will have to pay 12% more property tax to the BMC, if the new formula proposed by the municipal administration to calculate property tax in the city is approved by the standing committee of the BMC.
The average of the increase in property tax across all categories will be 14.52% with the new formula. The BMC had earlier proposed new property taxes where calculations were based on built-up area rather than carpet area. While the earlier proposal would have taken the revenue from property tax to Rs 5077.62 crore, the revised proposal will mean a tax collection of Rs 4,563.33 crore. The new formula to calculate property tax on the basis of carpet area was presented to the group leader of political parties on Monday.
Senior BMC officials said they were confident the new formula would be approved in the standing committee meeting to be held on Wednesday. If the new formula is not approved, then property tax will increase by 27.43%.
The BMC has a target of collecting Rs 6,000 crore in property tax every year. "In addition to Rs 4,563.33 crore we are expecting to get Rs 90 crore on average from new properties or change of users every year," a senior official from estate department said. "So we are meeting our target and not even burdening Mumbaikars.
From residents, we would have got Rs 1,320.21 crore but now with the new proposed formula we will get Rs 1,475.22 crore. From open lands we would have got Rs 460.32 crore but can now, as per the new proposed formula, expect to get Rs 595.98 crore. On residents the increased burden would be only 11.74%."
