35k hsg societies to protest against new property tax

Mumbai: Citizens' groups, 40 NGOs and 35,000 housing societies have planned a mass agitation against the BMC's "unjust" computation of capital value-based property tax. They have also decided to go on a one-day hunger strike at Azad Maidan before the assembly session ends in April. 

    Addressing the media on Monday, representatives of NGOs like Watchdog Foundation, SOUL, the Bombay Catholic Sabha and Federation of Housing Societies said they want the authorities (the BMC and the state) to revert to the old method of computing property tax as the citizens are upset with the new system. 
    SOUL convener Dolphy D'souza said there was disparity in the property tax levied on flats in western suburbs and the island city. D'souza furnished documents that showed that while a Marol resident who lived in a 300 sq-ft flat with a valuation of Rs 1.14 crore paid Rs 13,977 as property tax annually, the owner of a 10,000 sq ft-flat in Colaba with a valuation of Rs 12.74 crore paid only Rs 5,200. The NGOs made a presentation before the citizens highlighting the "malfunctioning and mismanagement in the BMC". 
    Advocate Godfrey Pimenta said the BMC signed a tripartite agreement in 2006 with the state government and the Centre for receipt of funds under Jawaharlal Ne hru National Urban Renewal Mission. "Under the agreement, the BMC was to map all protected slums and bring them under the property tax net. But till date, slums have not been brought under the purview of property tax."