By Apurva Bhatt

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday passed the much delayed new property tax proposal and now citizens will have to pay around 14% property tax. This increase has been planned in the revised property tax rules that will be adopted by the BMC till 2019. The only solace for citizens is that the hike would have been a lot more (up to 27%) had the existing property tax rules been retained.

Remarks Saurabh Shah a Andheri resident, “14% increase is acceptable, but a 27% increase would have been too much. The BMC should now use this money for development of suburbs and city.”According to the revised rules, the formula to calculate the capital value of your property, which determines your property tax, has been revised by changing some major factors. One of the changes will be that the capital value of your property will now be determined by taking into account the carpet area of your flat, instead of the built-up area.

This has been introduced after the BMC was reprimanded by the Bombay high court over 17 ongoing petitions, which challenge the civic body’s capital value-based property tax system. Another change in the rules is that the BMC has reduced the weightage accorded to the different types of constructions – Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) buildings, luxurious RCC buildings and chawls. “These reductions have been planned taking into account the exorbitant hike in ready reckoner rates. We have nullified this hike by reducing the weightage given to other factors used to calculate the capital value of properties,” said a civic official. According to civic officials, the hike would have been 27% had the existing property tax rules been retained.