Pune civic body proposal to increase property tax on approval

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) prepared a fresh proposal that will raise the property taxes by 35-40% for the residents of the 23 newly included villages, on the lines of the earlier 11 merged villages, if approved. Around 1,90,000 properties are registered under the gram panchayats in the 23 villages, which gave all the bank account and data custody to the PMC after the announcement of the merger on June 30. The given proposal of PMC recommends a new tax structure with separate categories. The first suggestion is unauthorised residential properties post-2019 which are below 1,000 sq ft (owners will have to pay as per the total tax value) and above 1,000 sq ft properties, where the owners will have to pay 1.5 times the tax value. The second suggestion is residential properties with authorised construction, which will be charged as per the ready reckoner rate (RR) of the closest residential property in the PMC limit. If the proposed plan is sanctioned, the residents of these will have to pay more property tax. The gram panchayat has been assessing the general water tax, health and public electricity usage tax, general tax and special water tax on the area built from these properties. After being included in the limits of PMC, the same properties will be charged according to the RR of the site within the adjoining municipal limits. The new taxes are going to include general tax, cleaning tax, tree conservation tax, water drainage benefit tax, special cleaning tax, employment guarantee tax, municipal tax, water bill, fire tax, water benefit tax, road tax, education sub-tax and state government's education tax, and large residential land tax. Nilesh Padhale, a Mahalunge resident and businessman, told the media that the PMC must consider the new tax regime only after providing basic amenities to the residents. The director of the Wagholi Housing Societies Association, Nitin Kumar Jain, told the media that the residents of Wagholi are more or less aware of the new property structure and that everyone knows there is going to be a significant difference in property tax between the PMC and the gram panchayats. He said that they have no issues with it, as long as the garbage in the area is picked up and they get water, streetlights, roads and other infrastructural services that are expected from a civic body. He said that it must not happen that they pay more taxes and continue to live at a gram panchayat level infrastructure. Image Source Also read: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation extends property tax deadline Also read: Nashik Municipal Corp to bring new properties under tax