PUNE: The civic body will, in all likelihood, miss its
property tax collection target for 2017-18.
Pune Municipal Corporation had to collect Rs1,862 crore for this fiscal year, which will end on March 31. Meeting the target will be extremely difficult for the administration, as it has managed to collect only Rs994 crore since the start of current fiscal, April 1, 2017. This means
PMC will have to recover over 46% of its target — Rs868 crore — in just over a fortnight.
Last year, the civic body has earned around Rs1,200 crore through
property tax collections. The next year’s target has been revised down by Rs52 crore.
“Regular drives are being conducted in different parts of the city. We are issuing notices and confiscating properties,: said Vilas Kanade, head of PMC’s property tax department.
Civic officials said that even brass bands were hired to play loud music in front of defaulters’ properties, shaming the owners into clearing their dues. Property tax officials accompany the bands to collect the payments.
“But providing amnesty or discounts to defaulters will send the wrong message to regular tax payers,” a senior PMC official said.
There are 8.3 lakh taxable properties in Pune, of which 1 lakh are commercial. Officials said PMC had expected revenue from property owners in the newly merged villages. “The civic body should organize
Lok Adalats to deal with the pending legal issues. They can come up with an amnesty scheme, which will help in recovering the arrears,” said the Leader of Opposition in PMC, Chetan Tupe.
The issue of revenue from property tax had recently made the news after a hike was proposed by elected members, cutting across party lines. Earlier, civic activists had opposed the hike, saying that it would not help the civic coffers in the long run. They had instead demanded steps to recover dues from errant property owners. The general body of PMC had rejected the hike.
Last year, PMC has earned around Rs1,200 crore through property tax collections.
