While the payment deadline for the capital value-based property
tax arrears of the past three years has been extended to September 30
for those whose tax has increased under the new system, bills for the
current year (2013-14) are already being generated and will be due
around the same time — in September.

Under the new capital valuebased system of the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC), taxes of 19% of residential properties and 87% of
commercial properties had been hiked.

This means that you will not only pay tax arrears since 2010 this,
September but also the tax amount for the current year of 2013-14.

“The new bills will be served in a few days and residents will have
90 days to pay them,” said Rajiv Jalota, additional municipal
commissioner.

The burden is expected to be higher as taxes under the new capital
value-based regime according to civic data, have risen for some old
residentia properties by twice the amount and thrice the amount for
commercial properties.

“As per the usual cycle of giving 90 days for payment on receipt of
the bill, payment for the months from April to September 2013 will have
to be made by September and payments for the next six months from
October to March wil have to be made by December,” said an official.

With the delay in the implementation of the new system and the
constant demands made by activists and citizens for deadline extensions,
experts said the BMC planning for payments has left something to be
desired.

“The BMC should have foreseen the burden that payments at one go
would cause to citizens It should have created a system of accepting
payments in installments, at least for the arrears and should have set
corresponding deadlines for payments of each year,” said Utsal Karani
secretary, Janhit Manch, an organisation that works towards resolving
property tax issues.