E-Paper
Congress opposes amnesty scheme for open plot owners
The Congress opposes the proposal to waive off property tax for open plot owners in Pune, claiming it is contradictory to auctioning properties with tax dues.
PUNE: The Congress on Friday opposed the proposal to introduce the amnesty scheme for open plot owners to waive off their property tax.
Taking a stand against the proposal, Congress city unit president Arvind Shinde said, “On the backdrop of the upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) elections, the amnesty scheme is being introduced to waive off the property tax of 19,000 open plots. Most of these plots are owned by builders. The move is at the administration level to bring in the amnesty scheme for these open plot owners and ask them to pay only 20% of the property tax.”
“Total property tax dues of the open plot owners are ₹2,000 crore. On the one hand, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is auctioning properties that have property tax dues while on the other, it is bringing in a proposal to waive off the property tax of open plot owners which in itself is a contradiction,” Shinde said.
Interestingly, the same proposal had come up before the standing committee a few years ago. At that time too, the Congress had opposed it however the administration too had agreed with the Congress’s stand.
