E-Paper
Pune: Property tax defaulters and total dues more than double in one year
Both the number of defaulters having over ₹1 crore in property tax dues and the total amount of dues has more than doubled from last year to this year, a Right to Information (RTI) query has found
Both the number of defaulters having over ₹1 crore in property tax dues and the total amount of dues has more than doubled from last year to this year, a Right to Information (RTI) query has found.
Civic activist Vivek Velenkar sought the information under the RTI Act and found that till December 12 this year, the total number of tax defaulters had reached 1,065 with their dues reaching ₹3,330 crore. Whereas a RTI query by Velenkar for the corresponding period last year had found the total number of tax defaulters to be 474 and their dues to be ₹1,218 crore, he said.
“I sought the same information last year and found that there were 474 defaulters having more than 1 crore in property tax dues. Within a period of one year, the number of defaulters having more than ₹1 crore in property tax dues has increased from 474 to 1,065 and the total amount of property tax dues has increased from ₹1,218 crore to ₹3,330 crore,” Velenkar said.
Velenkar pinned the blame for the rise in the number of tax defaulters on the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) policy of introducing amnesty schemes for defaulters. While the civic body is recovering taxes from honest taxpayers on the one hand, it is bringing amnesty schemes for defaulters on the other, he said. With defaulters thinking they will get the benefits under some scheme or the other, they continue to remain defaulters, he added.
An officer of the property tax department on condition of anonymity said, “Most of the big defaulters have gone to court. Due to legal issues, the PMC is not able to recover the dues. Another reason for the rise in dues is that every year, the interest amount is getting added.”
