Pune Municipal Corporation Proposes 10% Property Tax Hike: Citizens Raise Concerns
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administration has proposed to raise property tax by 10% to boost revenue. The standing committee will take a call on this at a meeting on Monday, according to civic officials.
Currently, the standing committee consists only of civic officials because the new general body of elected corporators has not been formed yet. Citizens' groups and activists have opposed the move, arguing that the administration should instead focus on recovering dues from defaulters.
“There are many big tax defaulters. Revenue generation is possible if their dues are recovered,” said Prashant Badhe of Aple Pune, Apala Parisar, a group of citizens. Vivek Velankar of Sajag Nagrik Manch added, “The diligent taxpayers should not be burdened with a hike. The civic body should make sure the property owners who pay the tax are awarded, but instead, it is imposing more tax on them.”
PMC data shows that around Rs 7,000 crore in dues need to be recovered from various sources, including mobile towers, double taxes, disputed tax claims, and taxes on government properties. The civic administration has set a target of generating Rs 2,800 crore in revenues for the financial year 2025-26 in its budget and has so far collected around Rs 2,200 crore.
Civic officials stated that recovery drives have been carried out. Additionally, the administration recovered around Rs 713 crore from tax defaulters in two months under an amnesty scheme that ended on January 15. The amnesty scheme has now been extended by a month. “Since the 2% compound interest-like penalty levied monthly exceeded the original tax amount, an amnesty scheme was introduced,” a civic official explained.
Nearly 14.5 lakh properties are liable to pay property tax within the corporation limits. The rates for commercial properties are higher than those for residential properties. After the abolition of Octroi and local body tax, the civic administration is left with very limited options like property tax for revenue generation.
In 2022-23, the PMC had given awards worth Rs 1 crore to diligent taxpayers selected through a lottery. This initiative was stopped after that, and people are calling for its revival.
