Panvel residents demand property tax rebate on `Palava city basis’

BJP says case different, but since PMC financially stronger now have asked for waiver from government

PANVEL

HT Image

The decision of the state government, last week, to give property tax rebate to 26,000 families of Palava, an integrated township project in Kalyan, has led to a similar demand by Panvel residents and opposition leaders, who have long been opposing the property tax policy in their region. The BJP however says that the case is different, but it has asked for waiver of tax from the government since the civic body is now financially stronger.

Social organisations, political parties and residents of CIDCO developed nodes in Panvel have long been contesting the region by Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) property tax policy claiming dual taxation, since the area was earlier under CIDCO jurisdiction. They have also gone to court on the matter. They have now approached chief minister Eknath Shinde asking for the relief.

According to Leena Garad, former corporator and president of Kharghar Colony Forum (KCF), “There is a clear provision in Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, section 129A for the concession. If a special housing project has been developed under Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, section 35, the state government has the right to collect property tax at a concessional rate from the housing project.”

She claimed, “It is on this basis that state minister Mangal Prasad Lodha related company’s Palava township project’s property tax has got a rebate of 66% by the State government.”

Claimed Garad, “The nodes developed by CIDCO are also special projects developed under MRTP section 36. Just as the concession has been given in Palava, similar relief should be given to CIDCO constructed nodes of Kharghar, Kamothe, Kalamboli, Taloja, New Panvel, Khanda Colony. Around 2.5 lakh property holders reside here and expect similar justice.”

Alleged Garad, “The local elected representatives do not have the political will to provide similar concession to the residents here. I have written to the chief minister on the issue.”

Dismissing the demand for a similar concession, Panvel BJP MLA Prashant Thakur said, “It is a different case as the infrastructure in the Palava township has been developed by the developer who bore the cost sans any burden on the municipal corporation. Here, CIDCO has developed the infrastructure in the nodes, and barring water supply, other services have been handed over to PMC and CIDCO mentions the cost incurred by it.”

Explained Thakur, “Till the time PMC wasn’t getting GST grant, we in the BJP believed it wasn’t capable of giving up on a part of the property tax element. Now, since the civic body is getting its rightful GST share, it can afford to waive off tax to some extent.”

He informed, “BJP has hence now demanded with the state government that it waive off the tax for at least the first two years since the civic body started levying it.”

Box

The Tax background

Over two years after its formation on October 1, 2016, January 17, 2019 PMC general body cleared a proposal to levy property tax in its jurisdiction. Earlier the residents paid taxes to their respective gram panchayats and service tax to CIDCO.

The property tax dues are being billed with retrospective effect from October 2016. Residents in CIDCO nodes also paid service tax to CIDCO till November 2022 and hence claim double taxation.

In September 2021, KCF filed a writ petition in High Court claiming PMC was levying tax despite not providing services to the residents as CIDCO was providing them.

PMC in February 2022, under its e-governance initiative, developed an application ‘PMC TAX App’ for the payments. It has also been offering various incentives including 5% incentive for early payments and an additional 2% incentive if the tax is paid online. It has recently started issuing seizure notices to defaulters.

Box

Become partners or face action – PMC

The civic body has in its annual budget targeted ₹275 cr property tax collection this financial year. It also wants to recover the arrears of ₹1400 cr due for the past 5 years.

According to municipal commissioner Ganesh Deshmukh, “Property tax is very important for the civic body to undertake development works. We have already collected over ₹210 cr in property tax this financial year, which shows that the residents are coming forward to support the civic body.”

Explained Deshmukh, “There is no stay on the recovery of property tax by the High Court. We are informing the residents that they should not fall for any misinformation. They are being warned that default in payment will prevent sale or transfer of their properties. There is also a possibility of seizure of their immovable and movable properties.”

He added, “We appeal to the citizens to pay their property tax dues at the earliest. By paying their taxes, residents become partners in the development of the city.”