The property tax department of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has urged the chairpersons of 100 residential housing societies to ask flat owners to pay their tax arrears. The tax department also warned of confiscating properties if the arrears are not paid.
In a letter, PCMC assistant municipal commissioner Nilesh Deshmukh said, “We have intensified our drive against property tax defaulters. Property tax defaulters in the residential category owe Rs 480 crore arrears to the PCMC.”
Deshmukh said there are 5.92 lakh properties in PCMC limits and 17 divisional offices of the PCMC collect taxes. “Last year, we collected Rs 625 crore property tax. This year, we aim to collect Rs 1,000 crore. So far, in this fiscal, we have collected Rs 575 crore.”
Deshmukh said in the PCMC limits, there are some large residential societies. “In such societies, there are 1,000-1,500 property tax defaulters. Though as per the law, we can disconnect the water connections of the entire society, the civic administration does not intend to do so. In view of this, we are urging the society chairpersons and secretaries to prod their tax defaulters to pay up their arrears,” he said.
Deshmukh said residential societies should put up the names of tax defaulters on the society’s notice board. “Even then if they do not pay their tax, then we will take society chairmen and secretaries into confidence for disconnecting the water lines of such tax defaulters,” he said.