The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is struggling to recover its past dues of property tax. The property tax is the primary source of the civic body's income (25 per cent of the total income). Although the civic body has collected tax nearly equal to last year's, the pending dues — including disputed and non-disputed — have been increased by 30 per cent due to the delay. The main reasons behind this are disputed capital base amount and apathy of commercial establishments. The amount for the month of November, which is yet to be recovered was Rs 14,126 crore. The BMC has collected an additional amount of Rs 800 crores up to now so the pending dues is over Rs 13, 000 crore now. Last year, this value was below Rs 10,000 crores. Furthermore, the disputed amount is much more than last year's. The parties disputing the bills have challenged them in courts which is why the BMC cannot take action against them until the court's ruling. After the closure of Octroi, property tax has become the BMC's primary source of income. Though the civic body has been getting a compensation of Rs 8,401 crores for Octroi from the state, it doesn't have control over it. The civic body collected Rs 5,100 crore property tax in 2017-18 and set a target of Rs 5,206 crores for 2018-19. The BMC collected Rs 3,061 crores up to January 10, which is almost equal the Rs 3,031 crores collected by January 10, 2018.

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