Citizens on PMC’s hit list as they are soft targets, alleges activist

Since the PMC has failed to collect over Rs 24 crore property tax from properties owned by the state and central governments and has not initiated any actions for the recovery, irked citizen activists hit out at the civic authorities for trivialising tax evasions from the government institutions.

Claiming the civic body’s incompetence to collect property taxes from the state as well as central government offices across the city, citizen activists have alleged the Pune municipal corporation officials of consistently targeting the general public as they are soft targets.

Vishwas Sahasrabuddhe, member of city-based NGO Sajak Nagrik Manch, said, “As common citizens are the soft targets for the PMC and often lack the resources for fighting against the civic actions, they enforce all the compulsions on the common people and ignore the faulty government establishments.” (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Since the PMC has failed to collect over Rs 24 crore property tax from properties owned by the state and central governments and has not initiated any actions for the recovery, irked citizen activists hit out at the civic authorities for trivialising tax evasions from the government institutions.

Vishwas Sahasrabuddhe, member of city-based NGO Sajak Nagrik Manch, said, “As common citizens are the soft targets for the PMC and often lack the resources for fighting against the civic actions, they enforce all the compulsions on the common people and ignore the faulty government establishments.”

According to Sahasrabuddhe, it is wrong on the part of the PMC that they are not taking actions against these government bodies. He said, “The reason for not paying the taxes may be because of lack of funds from the respective governments, however, it is the responsibility of the PMC to take strict actions against them like they act against the common citizens.”

PMC must concentrate on recovering the amount of property tax from these institutions, said Sahasrabuddhe.

Maj Gen SCN Jatar (retd), Nagrik Chetna Manch president, accused the civic authorities of targeting only the citizens and giving a free hand to the government institutions even after not paying the taxes.

He said, “It is the most unfortunate and yet a true fact that the civic officials have become blind to the tax evasions done by the government offices. A total of Rs 24 crore is not a very small amount. If the PMC enforces rules and regulations on common citizens, government establishments must come under their purview of the mandatory rules.”

Accusing the civic administration of being manipulated and influenced by the power, Jatar added, “Not only have the government offices but some powerful private offices as well, been neglected by the civic body for not paying the tax on time. However, because citizens are easy and soft a target, PMC enforces all the rules on them.”