Spurred by new municipal commissioner's revised Octroi collection target, it is set to increase vigilance around entry points to city, raids on trade centres

IN a move intended to stem tax evasion and fill the BMC's dwindling coffers, the newly appointed municipalu00a0 commissioner has revised the octroi collection target for this fiscal and instructed his officers to be stricter with violators.

Octroi is one of the main sources of income for the civic body, which now plans to increase vigilance around entry points to the city as well as raids on trade centres, say officials.


For the first time the BMC has increased its octroi collection target in the middle of the year. BMC
earns its major chunk of revenue from octroi

Subodh Kumar, who took over as BMC Commissioner on January 3, has increased the octroi collection target for the current year by Rs 136 crore. The target has been revised to Rs 5,045 crore from Rs 4,909 crore, which the octroi department will have to achieve by April.

"The BMC, which gets a major chunk of its revenue from octroi collection, is in need of money. This is the first time that the target has been revised in the middle of financial year. I feel that it is achievable," said an officer from the octroi department.

"Vigilance has been stepped up around entry points to the city. Officers are now posted there around the clock and raids on godowns have been intensified. They will be conducted regularly now instead of periodically," said an official from the octroi-vigilance department.

"The commissioner is strict about this and wants the job to be complete," he added. Rahul Shewale, chairperson of the BMC's standing committee, confirmed the increase in the target.
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"The revenue was less from the octroi sector because of the property tax issue this year. The decision taken by Subodh Kumar is a wise one. He has asked the vigilance team to be stricter to avoid action against the department," said Shewale.

The BMC collects Rs 10-12 crore in octroi per day from Monday to Saturday while it collects only Rs 4 crore on Sunday. It had collected Rs 3,448.5 crore between April 1, 2009 and January 13, 2010, and has managed to collect Rs 3,845 crore in the same period this year an 11.49 per cent increase.
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The BMC collects most of its octroi from the four toll nakas in the city Mulund (East), Mulund (West), Mumbai-Panvel highway and Dahisar-Airoli naka.

On a High
On January 13, 2010, the BMC collected Rs 26 crore in octroi, making it the highest collection in a single day. Nearly Rs 14.54 lakh was collected from oil. Octroi collection crossed Rs 4,000 crore for the first time in 2008 when the BMC collected Rs 4,252 crore.