The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has requested the State Urban Development Department to direct the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to waive Rs 5.50 billion in property tax levied on temporary casting yards and Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) plants set up by Metro contractors. This request follows a letter sent by the BMC in December 2024, demanding recovery of the pending dues.

J Kumar Infraprojects was allotted seven plots by MMRDA across various BMC wards—H/East (Santacruz), H/West (Bandra), K/East (Andheri), P/North (Malad), and M/West (Chembur)—to establish casting yards and RMC plants for Metro construction. The company has reportedly refused to pay the property tax, citing a contractual clause that assigns payment responsibility to MMRDA.

On December 9, 2024, BMC’s Joint Municipal Commissioner from the Assessment and Collection Department formally urged MMRDA to address the issue and settle the dues.

In response, MMRDA approached the Additional Chief Secretary of the UD Department in February 2025, requesting that BMC be instructed to waive the tax. In its communication to the BMC, MMRDA stated that coercive recovery actions should be held off until the state government makes a decision on the proposal.

The BMC, amid an ongoing recovery initiative, has identified several major tax defaulters, including real estate firms and government bodies. Total outstanding property tax dues since 2010, including penalties, have reached Rs 220 billion. As part of this drive, the civic body has begun serving notices to large defaulters and plans to auction 25 properties of non-compliant entities in the near future.

News source: Free Press Journal