Residents of the city have decided to contest a protest against BMC which has recently announced its new property tax policy. As per the new property tax policy the property tax will be calculated on the basis of capital value.

New property tax plan of BMC, received severe discontent.

BMC’s decision to compute property tax on the basis of capital value of the property raised the anger of the city residents. The residents of over 35,000 housing societies have already decided to protest against the new property tax policy of BMC.

Some citizens’ groups and 40 Non-Government organizations will support and take part in the protest. They have planned to conduct a one-day hunger strike at Azad Maidan. They plan to conduct the hunger strike before the current session of BMC ends next month.

NGOs like the Bombay Catholic Sabha, Federation of Housing Societies, SOUL and Watchdog Foundation will partake in the protest. While addressing the media, the representatives of these NGOs said that they want the authorities to do away with the new system.

They demanded the authorities to go back to the old system. They claimed that the new property tax system has really upset the people.

Residents to protest against BMC for revising the new property tax system

Dolphy D’Souza, Convener of SOUL, said that there is disparity in the new system. She had some documents to prove her claims. The documents prove that the property tax levied on the western suburbs differ with the tax levied on the island city.

Under the new property tax system, a property worth over Rs.1 Cr in Marol would be levied Rs.14000 tax while a property in Colaba worth over Rs.12 Cr would be levied a mere Rs.5200 per year. This figure alone shows how deep the disparity is.

Highlighting the unjust functioning of the BMC, the NGOs also have presented before the citizens. BMC is also blamed not to bring the slums under the purview of property tax. Advocate Godfrey Pimenta revealed that this was agreed by the BMC in 2006 and now it has to soon appoint a committee for surveying the slums.