BMC spends Rs 15.63 lakh on SMS despite cheap mobile services

Mumbai: At a time when mobile service providers provide services at much cheaper rates, BMC last year spent Rs 15.63 lakh to urge people to pay their property tax bills using Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes after demonetization. Interestingly, the work was given to a single company without holding any discussions with service providers.

After demonetisation, the BMC said that it would accept property tax bills in the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and accordingly, appealed citizens to pay their arrears using these notes.

Officials said with an aim to inform maximum number of property holders and collect tax arrears from them, BMC’s assessment and collection department decided to send bulk mobile messages to taxpayers. Accordingly, M. Gaze India Private Limited, which works in the field of sending bulk messages, sent messages to 15,998,768 on November 13 at a cost of Rs 15.63 lakh.

“As the period for accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes was less, we did not invite any tender for this. Since the number of mobile phone-holders in the city is very large, we thought it was convenient to implement the entire process with the help of a single company instead of contacting various mobile service providers. We held discussions with M. Gaze and a rate of 0.085 paisa was finalised for sending each SMS,” a source said.

While BMC claims that the rate was less, the actual cost for sending each SMS came to 10.23 paisa after taking into account 15 per cent service tax.