The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has initiated a survey of commercial slums and plans to start collecting property tax from the next financial year. After waiving property tax on residential properties up to 500 square feet, the civic body has been losing around R300 crore in revenue annually. Meanwhile, it has launched various mega projects worth approximately Rs 1.5 lakh crore. To fund these projects, the BMC is now exploring new revenue sources, including collecting property tax from commercial slums.

Until 2006-07, the BMC charged Rs 100 annually as a service fee for residential slum structures and Rs 250 for commercial ones. In 2016, it revised these charges to a range of Rs 2,400 to Rs 18,000 annually, depending on the area and type of hut. At that time, then-BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta proposed levying property taxes on slum properties in the budget. However, in 2018, the BMC abolished property tax for residential properties up to 500 square feet, putting the collection of property tax from slums on hold. Now, the BMC has decided to resume this tax collection for commercial slums.