All about the PMC property tax amnesty scheme

[ecis2016.org] The Pune Municipal Corporation, from time to time, offers relief for property tax defaulters, through amnesty schemes. Here are the details of the latest scheme

PCMC property tax amnesty scheme

Extended for the second successive time, the PCMC property tax amnesty scheme will now end on August 31, 2021.This extra time for the second time is to encourage the citizens to leverage the benefits offered by the PCMC property tax amnesty scheme, if property taxes for FY 21-22 are paid in full before the deadline.

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PCMC has more than five and a half lakh properties across residential, commercial and industrial segments who have to pay the PCMC property tax every year. Citizens can pay the PCMC property tax either in the first half of the financial year –April to September or the second half of the financial year-October to March. While initially, the PCMC property tax amnesty scheme was valid only till June 30,2021, it was extended by a month- July 31,2021 because of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

PMC property tax amnesty scheme

The PMC was to collect Rs 4,500 crores from tax defaulters in the city, including a sum of Rs 2,500 crores as fine and Rs 2,000 crores as the principal tax amount to be paid. In spite of extension of the amnesty scheme by the PMC till January 26,2021, many people continued to default on their property tax. To address this, the PMC has started the process of auctioning 40 properties in the PMC areas, to recover the taxes.

The amnesty scheme comes after the Maharashtra government’s recent move, to reduce the stamp duty on sale deed documents by 3% from September 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020 and by 2% from January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021. The stamp duty rate prior to this was 5% for urban areas and 4% for rural. Soon after this, the ready reckoner (RR) rate was hiked, almost invalidating the effect of the stamp duty reduction.

Year after year, the PMC rolls out attractive amnesty schemes, just like most other civic bodies across India. While it does help to an extent, the conflict between policies encouraging home-ownership and those that add to the number of fence-sitters, seems to go on year after year. In the intervening time, home owners get property tax amnesty schemes, which is ‘not ideal’, says Sakshi Vasudeva, a Pune-based home owner. “We pay our property tax on time, every year. While there may be many circumstances that deter home owners from paying their property tax, an 80% penalty waiver is not encouraging for those who have always paid it on time.” Here’s all that you need to know about the amnesty scheme introduced by the PMC in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Pune property tax amnesty initiatives

PMC standing committee chairman Hemant Rasne said that it was necessary to give some relief to the home owners, given that many of them found it difficult to withstand problems caused by floods in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. So far, property tax dues from 5,34,410 properties were pending and while the actual tax amount stood at Rs 2,117.42 crores, the penalty amount on it was Rs 2,468.66 crores. This is because the corporation charges a 2% compound interest every month, on unpaid property tax dues.

According to Suhas Mapari, deputy commissioner – taxation and tax collection, Pune Municipal Corporation, “We launched various key initiatives like the amnesty scheme, quick resolution of online and offline payment issues and a special mobile recovery van for on-the-spot payments. The scheme was successful since our coffers saw an increase of about 22% per annum in tax recovery amount.”

How will the Pune property tax amnesty scheme help home owners?

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If the existing penalty was to be applied, the penalty amount would be higher than the actual tax. As a result, the standing committee of the PMC has allowed 80% relief on the penalty amount, to those paying their dues between October 2, 2020 and November 30, 2020. Those paying the dues after November 30, will get a rebate of 75% on the penalty amount. Starting January until the 26th, the rebate will be reduced to 70% of the penalty. Only those with dues of less than Rs 50 lakhs, are eligible for the amnesty scheme. Owners of all properties – residential, commercial and educational – can benefit from this scheme.

The civic body has formed a special recovery team of 61 people, to implement the scheme. About 3.5 lakh properties are under their radar. Notices have been issued to defaulters and the special team will, in days to come, follow up with them and may even make visits, if required.

While the PMC expects to recover dues, it is still far from assessing over four lakh properties, as also their GIS mapping. Once this is done, more properties would be under the fold of the PMC resulting in added revenue for the civic body. Extending amnesty schemes, some allege, gives out mixed signals. Do note that this is not the first time that the PMC has announced an amnesty scheme. It did so in 2016 and 2018 too and even for other dues towards the local body and octroi, among others.

Although the PMC had maintained that the scheme will not be extended beyond November 30, 2020, the extension in date has been announced given that the corporation received a positive response and could collect Rs 350 crores in the first phase that ended on November 30, 2020.

Also Read: A guide to paying property tax in Pune

Pune property taxes on property  ownership

The RR hike in Maharashtra was on an average 1.74%, the highest being in Pune at 2.79%. Analysts say that the hike has been ‘unscientific’, especially in the case of Pune which has been affected and is looking for housing revival over the next few months.

Percentage increase in RR rates

There was no rate revision in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

How the RR rate hike will impact real estate

Anuj Khetan, director, Vijay Khetan Group, remarks, “It is being perceived that the ready reckoner rates have been increased in the state. However, in reality, in the government’s view, they have rationalised the rates across the city. Nonetheless, it is not the right time to do this exercise when the industry’s balance sheet is under severe stress and the country is reeling under this horrific pandemic.” Bhushan Nemlekar, director, Sumit Woods Limited, adds: “We are hoping that the BMC will reduce the premium percentage so as to give relief to the real estate industry.”

PMC contact information

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To contact PMC, you can reach out on:

Toll-free number: 1800-1030-222

Address: PMC Main Building, Near. Mangla Theatre, Shivajinagar, Pune- 411 005

PMC contact no: 020-25501000

PMC security contact no: 020-25501130

PMC municipal mayor fax no: 020-25501012

PMC fax no: 020-25501104

Email-Id:info@punecorporation.org 

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