NMMC has authority to collect property tax in Thane-Belapur industrial belt: SC

B B Nayak

Navi Mumbai: The Supreme Court stated in an order given on Wednesday that the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) is the competent authority to collect property tax in the Thane Trans Creek-MIDC area, known as the Thane-Belapur industrial corridor.

The verdict, which came in a case filed by the Small Scale Entrepreneurs Association (SSEA), Thane Trans Creek-MIDC area, paves the way for collection of property tax by NMMC from over 3,000 industries along the corridor.

The SSEA had filed a petition in Bombay high court in 2001 against NMMC’s property tax collection order. It had cited a jurisdiction issue as the MIDC was also levying service charges in the area. The HC ruled in favour of NMMC, and the SSEA challenged the verdict in the apex court in 2010.

On the question of whether the TTC-MIDC area came under NMMC, the SC said the entire area comes under the jurisdiction of NMMC based on provisions of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act (MMC), Maharashtra Industrial Development Act, 1961 (MIDC) and Maharashtra Regional Rules and Town Planning Act, 1966 (MRTP).

The SC stated that tax and fee are different, and the sovereign right to levy tax lies with the municipal corporation as a local self-govt body. Fee is levied as a surcharge or remuneration for services used, and it is not included in tax, the court said.

The SC also stated that MIDC could only levy fees and not taxes and clarified that NMMC has the right to levy taxes under Sections 127 and 128A of the MMC Act. “The statement that double taxation is being levied has been proven to be incorrect as the apex court clarified the difference between tax and duty while determining the tax-levying authority of NMMC for this area,” officials said.

Municipal commissioner Kailas Shinde told TOI that with this verdict, “the issue of property tax levy in the TTC-MIDC area, pending in the court for many years, has been settled and the path of tax collection by the municipal corporation has been cleared.”

He further said that the city development works are being carried out through revenue collected through taxes by the civic body, and the revenue received would give a new impetus to city development. He appealed to all small entrepreneurs to contribute to the city’s development by paying property tax in keeping with the SC order. The pending property tax dues are in excess of Rs 800 crore.

K R Gopi, ex-president of SSEA and president of TTC-MIDC Industries Association, said, “We will challenge the court’s decision with the filing of a review petition. We will present our case once again. We are fighting against dual taxation -- from both MIDC and NMMC.”