BMC to waive off around Rs 41 cr property tax for hotels

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed a wellness package for 234 hotels in Mumbai that offered room to quarantine high-risk patients and international passengers during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the officials, property taxes of about Rs 41.9 crore are to be waived off from February to May.

In 2020, from April to June, BMC waived property taxes of Rs 22 crore for 182 hotels and lodges during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

BMC has proposed the second wellness package in front of the civic standing committee. As per the package, the health department of BMC will pay Rs 41.9 crore to the property tax department from February to May.

Declining the proposal, Congress said that BMC could not selectively waive off the tax. Slamming BMC for not waiving the tax for structures up to 500 sq ft.

Congress Corporator, Ravi Raja, told the media that the five-star hotels had charged the patients and international passengers for food and stay.

Ravi Raja further said that the Shiv Sena failed to provide a 100% property tax waiver for structures less than 500 sq ft, but it will waive off the tax for five-star hotels.

Last year, the standing committee of the Shiv Sean proposed to give a tax waiver to 182 hotels and lodges for Rs 22 crore from April to June since they were taken over as quarantine centres for patients and travellers from Vande Bharat flights.

The wellness package proposal was cleared despite other political parties like Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party, opposing the proposal, saying that out of the 182 hotels, various have defaulted on their property tax payments.

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