Cash-strapped BMC goes money hunting

As of now, more than Rs 20 crore are to be recovered by the BMC from Railways as water and sewerage charges. The talks are being mediated by C D Vaidya, an arbitrator appointed by the government. Ramani said the BMC would from now on also focus more on areas other than octroi to increase revenue.

While BMC has not recovered any tax from Central Government buildings since the last 50 years, it has now begun a survey of Central government properties and decided to recover property tax from them in breakups of five-year periods. “The survey has been complete till 1984, and we expect to generate revenue to the tune of Rs 20 crore by the end of the current financial year,” Ramani said. The total estimated property tax collection from central government properties is likely to be around Rs 100 crore, he said and added that likewise, the BMC will begin to tax Airports Authority buildings and even defence establishments.

Ramani revealed that the BMC is likely to fall short of the estimated octroi collection during the present financial year by about Rs 300 crore.

“Against an estimated collection of Rs 1,242 crore from octroi this year, only Rs 457 crore have been recovered in the first six months leaving us a deficit of about Rs 250-300 crore even if collection is increased in the remaining part of the year,” Ramani said.

But to augment octroi collection, the BMC would press for the approval of its proposal to install electronic weighing bridges for vehicles at all four octroi check posts in the city. “By merely installing the electronic weighing bridges, we can have the capacity to generate an additional Rs 40 crore from octroi,” Ramani said. When the electronic weighing bridges are installed, a given check post will be able to clear about 200 vehicles in an eight-hour shift. We have also proposed a drastic revision of the octroi schedule . “Commodities like foodgrains and some agriculture products hardly yield any revenue and it would be better not to waste time and energy on recovery of octroi from these sources,” Ramani said.

As per the proposed revision, the schedule will now be of seven, four and two pc on leviable commodities. All luxury commodities will be charged seven pc octroi, and medicines and drugs four pc.