Pending property taxes of ₹3,330 to be collected from 1065 property tax defaulters
Vivek Velankar had requested the property tax department of Pune Municipal Corporation through Right To Information (RTI) about properties with property tax dues of more than ₹ 1 crore.
Pune Municipal Corporation has been criticized for not collecting the property taxes dues from the defaulters. Around ₹ 3,330 crores of property taxes are due and needs to be collected from 1065 tax defaulters, informed Vivek Velankar from Sajag Nagrik Manch (SNM).
Vivek Velankar had requested the property tax department of Pune Municipal Corporation through Right To Information (RTI) about properties with property tax dues of more than ₹ 1 crore.
Vivek Velankar claims that the property tax defaulters are having annual tax due of over ₹ 1 crore. However, of these tax defaulters 71 cases are pending in various courts with the due of ₹ 737 crore. Among these defaulters, two cases have a due of ₹ 432 crores. The cases of 660 mobile towers who owe property tax dues of ₹ 1,419 crores are pending in the court.
According to information given by PMC, 108 ‘dispute’ cases are in court amounting to ₹ 352 crore. Of this, ₹ 59 crores are due to the Defense Department and ₹ 29 crores to the MSEDCL. The Irrigation department owes Rs 68.49 crore and its recovery is done by water tariffs given to Pune Municipal Corporation’s water resource department.
He further states, that many cases of defaulters are not pending in the court and there is need to recover the dues from the defaulters. “PMC collects taxes due from the defaulters who owe a few hundred rupees. In the same way, efforts must be made for recovery from these defaulters as well. It is necessary for the legal and property tax department of the municipal corporation to set up a special cell and try to get the results of all these cases fast. Even if at least half of these cases are decided in favor of the Municipal Corporation, the Municipal Corporation will be able to get an income of ₹ 1000 crores,” Velankar said.
Ajit Deshmukh, head, tax department, Pune Municipal Corporation said, “We have been collecting taxes. We have prepared a list of 200 property holders where each defaulter is treated under dispute. The cases where there is a mistake in property taxes, or if court cases, etc are made them accordingly each case is handled. If the matter is not subjudised then we have ordered the team to seal or recover the pending property tax amounts.”
Mrunal Jadhav
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