Property Tax for Mumbaikars simplified - pay online

Since last year, my housing society discontinued the practice of paying property tax on behalf of the residents and now hands our individual property tax bills to us to take care of. I have been once to the local Municipal Office, and while it's not as bad an experience as I thought it would be, it does take up half the day till I reach, park the car, stand in a queue and get the job done.

Thanks to my dad, I discovered the online property tax payment facility offered by the BMC. You can find it here.

To enter the site, you just need to enter the SAC number (usually an alphanumeric code) printed on your property tax bill. 

The payment gateway accepts payment through credit card or netbanking from a whole list of nationalised banks, but not from too many private ones. However, you can use the ItzCash or BillDesk facilities to pay through any credit card or netbanking account. A small service fee is levied per transaction, but in these days, with the petrol prices what they are, you would spend as much just getting to your nearest ward office. Not to mention, the working hours that you would end up spending there.

I have used this facility to make my last two payments and both have gone through smoothly, with printable e-receipts that I can download and save. Be aware that the payment gateway is moody and acts up sometimes, but works in the end.

If your property tax is overdue, a penalty may be chargeable and you will not be allowed to make the payment online. Then, you have no choice but to visit the local office.

It's a fantastic convenience to be able to avoid visiting a government office and it's a pity that more people do not avail of it. DNA reported in April that only 1% of property tax bills in Mumbai are paid through the BMC website. Of course, discomfort of most people with online payment is cited as the reason for this, but equally I think people are unaware that this option is given by the BMC. The site shifted to a new URL sometime ago and I had to spend half hour digging through the BMC website to find the new link. I could not find it by googling and that's the reason for this post - to save someone else's time!

Update : A new post is up on this subject. The method and way of payment has changed slightly.

Comments

  1. NeilJanuary 16, 2012 at 10:52 PM

    Thanks for the info - your info helped :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. NishaJanuary 16, 2012 at 10:58 PM

    You're welcome - glad it helped you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mahek ShahJanuary 19, 2012 at 10:37 PM

    Thanks for info, it works.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ParthoMarch 15, 2012 at 7:17 AM

    Thank you for the link
    Any idea how to get a copy of the property tax bill copy if we have lost it?
    Thanks in advance

    ReplyDelete
  5. PhilomathJanuary 1, 2013 at 3:08 AM

    Has the url changed again??

    ReplyDelete
  6. NishaJanuary 1, 2013 at 3:57 AM

    https://aquaptax.mcgm.gov.in/ptax/citizenptax/ is the URL but it appears to be down right now...

    ReplyDelete
  7. super_capriconJanuary 2, 2013 at 3:09 AM

    Ya, it sure is down, i hav been trying this url from December, and its still not working, i also went to the office to pay the property tax, but they told me that payment of property tax will start from 1 January, as they have some server problem. They also told that online payment site will be up bu 1st Jan too, but still its not working.

    ReplyDelete
  8. super_capriconJanuary 2, 2013 at 3:10 AM

    Ya, it sure is down, i hav been trying this url from December, and its still not working, i also went to the office to pay the property tax, but they told me that payment of property tax will start from 1 January, as they have some server problem. They also told that online payment site will be up bu 1st Jan too, but still its not working.

    ReplyDelete
  9. NishaJanuary 2, 2013 at 3:11 AM

    This is strange! The other online payment gateways for water tax and octroi are still working though. Hopefully, this would get fixed soon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. super_capriconJanuary 2, 2013 at 3:31 AM

    How can they let this site, which is meant to be used by public, down for such an long period, I wonder if they are even maintaining it properly. If that's the case then how can we be sure that all the transaction we make will be successful completed, and we won't get any error screen, and to top that up a message from our Bank stating so-so amount of money has been debited from your account...now that scares me from using this facility. Then i will end up making numerous visit to their office making my complaints and sorting it out.

    ReplyDelete
  11. NishaJanuary 2, 2013 at 3:41 AM

    The payment goes through BillDesk if I remember, so they would be responsible for sorting out such issues. I must mention that I use online payment facility in several Govt sites including MTNL, BSNL, IRCTC and BMC and I have not faced too many problems. Once MTNL payment gateway gave me an error similar to what you are describing and I was able to sort out the issue through email with accounts.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2013 at 12:42 PM

    Why is the link not working

    ReplyDelete

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