BMC disconnects sewage lines

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started to disconnect the sewage lines of properties whose owners have failed to pay property taxes.  BMC is disconnecting the watershed of default-owned buddings, but now BMC has also begun disconnecting sewage lines.  Sewage lines of 4 properties were disconnected on Tuesday. 

A hotel in K-West ward was owed Rs 8 crore on Tuesday, BMC officials said.  The property tax has not been paid despite repeated requests and notifications.  So the sewage line of this property was cut off,”said a civil servant.  Sewage lines of three other properties were also cut off.  BMC had set a property tax target of Rs 1 lakh for the financial year 2020-21.  Property tax so far is Rs 5,200 crore.  4,536 crore was raised. In February, BMC began attaching property defaulters for failing to pay property taxes. 

Officials said the attachments were part of BMC's move to levy poetry taxes on offenders.  Not only did BMC not attach, but it also began auctioning off the property of those who did not pay property taxes. BMC has a total property tax of Rs 20,000 crore, which needs to be collected from property owners across the city.  As the Civil Body faced a severe crisis this year due to the Kovid-19 pandemic, BMC began attaching and auctioning the properties of the defaulters as it offered discounts to builders and contractors.