Unpaid property tax: BMC seals Seven Hills Hospital’s offices

Dr Ashok Asthana, vice-president at Seven Hills Hospital, said, “We have received the notice and our legal team will follow up with the BMC.”

A financial crisis and unpaid property taxes have hit Marol’s Seven Hills Hospital with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) this week sealing the hospital’s administrative offices over outstanding tax dues. The hospital management, however, said they were continuing to function “normally”. On Thursday, the BMC sealed the administrative offices of the hospital. The civic body had earlier given the Seven Hills Hospital an ultimatum to clear property tax arrears by February 28.

In January, the civic body had issued a showcause notice to the hospital for reportedly failing to clear property tax arrears. However, after the hospital administration failed to meet the February 28 deadline, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta and Additional Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee directed the assessment and collection department to seal the hospital’s administrative offices.

Devidas Kshirsagar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) in the assessment and collection department of the BMC, said, “We will unseal the office only after the management clears the property tax arrears. They had a deadline of February 28, and as they didn’t pay, we had to act against them.” Kshirsagar added that the total pending dues were around Rs 39 crore. Of this, the hospital has raised a dispute to the tune of Rs 30 crore. He said, “They have agreed to pay only Rs 9 crore. That sum has not been paid yet either.”

Dr Ashok Asthana, vice-president at Seven Hills Hospital, said, “We have received the notice and our legal team will follow up with the BMC. We are not shutting operations of the hospital yet.” According to a doctor attached with Seven Hills Hospital, currently the out patient department of the hospital is functioning, and so are in-patient admissions. On Saturday, patients continued to attend the OPD of various departments.

“We are seeing patients, but the hospital is running slow because of issue of non-payment of salaries to doctors. Several doctors are unavailable,” another doctor said. Asthana added that as doctors have approached the National Company Law Tribunal over the delay in their salaries, the matter is now sub-judice.

An interim team will soon be formed to manage functioning of the hospital, he said. The 306-bed hospital has been grappling with financial issues since 2017. Over 50 doctors went on indefinite strike on December 28 last year due to non-payment of salaries for six months. The doctors also filed a complaint with the MIDC police station.

A senior doctor with the hospital said that currently a few doctors have been paid half their salaries, while some have been paid for a few months and continue to await due payments. The Seven Hills Hospital was launched as a public private partnership with the BMC, with 1,500 beds. In subsequent years it reduced its bed strength due to losses.

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