With only 17,000 property tax defaulters of residential properties availing its amnesty scheme, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to extend the scheme by about a month to February 28. The earlier deadline for the scheme was January 26.
Under the amnesty scheme, 75 per cent waiver in the penalty amount is given to the defaulters to encourage them clear their dues and become regular tax-payers. “There was a demand from elected representatives to extend the time for implementing the amnesty scheme. Thus, it was unanimously decided that the scheme will be extended till February 28,” said Hemant Rasane, the chairperson of the standing committee.
He said only 17,000 property tax defaulters have availed the benefit of the scheme among four lakh defaulters in the city. “The standing committee has also recommended the civic administration to extend the amnesty scheme for commercial properties along with residential properties,” Rasane said.
Last year, the amnesty scheme for property tax defaulters had resulted in the rise in property tax collection by Rs 450 crore. “We want to bring all the property tax defaulters in the list of regular tax payers,” he said.
There are a total of 12 lakh registered properties in the PMC area. The civic administration collected Rs 1,300 crore from 7.81 lakh properties between April 1 and December 31 last year. Also, 47,537 new properties, which will fetch a total tax amount of Rs 335 crore, have come into the tax ambit in the current financial year.
The PMC administration has also proposed an increase in property tax, saying it has not been increased since 2015. It has proposed a hike of 11 per cent in property tax from the fiscal year 2022-23. However, the ruling BJP is against the hike in property tax.
Moreover, the PMC has decided to start levying property tax on authorised properties in the 23 villages recently added to the civic jurisdiction.
