E-Paper
₹211.87 crore waived during property tax amnesty scheme; ₹1,370 crore tax collected
PUNE The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has claimed to have made a record ₹1,370 crore in tax collection in 2020
PUNE The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has claimed to have made a record ₹1,370 crore in tax collection in 2020.
Of this, ₹211.87 crore has been waived during the property tax amnesty scheme.
Now, the corporation has set a target of ₹2,356 crore in property tax collection for 2021, with its total outstanding in arrears at ₹5,000 crore.
Agsint the Covid-19 background, the PMC announced the tax amnesty scheme in December 2020. The PMC extended the scheme twice after that.
The corporation also announced that it would provide a loan facility, from cooperative banks, to aid defaulters in paying the outstanding dues.
However, so far, only one defaulter from Hadapsar availed of the loan facility and cleared his outstanding tax dues of ₹12 lakh.
During the amnesty scheme, the PMC was expecting ₹700 crore tax from 2,43,814 defaulters.
However, the PMC collected ₹487.92 crore from 1,49,771 property tax defaulters.
This has been the third amnesty scheme last the 10 years.
Vilas Kanade, joint municipal commissioner, property tax department, said, “In the amnesty scheme, the corporation visited 2,43,814 properties. The corporation sealed 458 properties, which have ₹37.63 crore in outstanding taxes. Given the Covid-19 scenario, we can say that we got satisfactory responses.”
On Friday, the municipal commissioner tabled a draft budget-2021-22 of ₹7,650 crore, in which corporation has set a target of ₹2,356 crore for the property tax department.
On the new property tax target Kanade said, “We are positive. We will use all the possible ways which have been mentioned in corporation law.”
On the amnesty schemes, Qaneez Sukhrani, secretary, Nagrik Chetna Manch, said, “Currently, PMC charges for services it is not rendering which are in direct contravention of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Right to Life Article-21 of the Constitution of India. Services related to basic amenities such as distribution of water, scientific disposal of municipal waste, good quality roads, footpaths, cycle tracks, street lights for visibility, quality public transport, are plainly lacking. PMC should have to roll out amnesty and waiver of property tax in comparison to budget income target figures. One side, regular taxpayers are paying taxes to the PMC, other side, PMC is waiving taxes of defaulters. It should be stopped.”
