Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to implement the ‘Abhay’ scheme for property tax defaulters with dues less than Rs 50 lakh. However, there are 474 defaulters in the city who have dues of more than Rs 1 crore each. The total amount of such tax dues is a whopping 1218 crore. Hence, the Sajag Nagrik Manch has demanded that the Pune Municipal Corporation should immediately start proceedings to recover this amount from the high profile defaulters.
Vivek Velankar, President of Sajag Nagrik Manch, has demanded that the Pune Municipal Corporation should constitute a special committee comprising of officials from its property tax and legal departments. This committee should focus on recovery of tax dues from these high profile defaulters.
Velankar had sought information about defaulters who have an amount of more than 1 crore as pending dues of property tax. The information was sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The list provided by the PMC has now revealed this shocking information.
According to the information provided by PMC, there are 474 defaulters who have dues amounting to Rs 1218 crore. Out of these, 50 defaulters have filed a case in the court against the PMC. These 50 defaulters are amounting to dues of Rs 375 crore. Interestingly, of these 50, there are two defaulters who are supposed to pay the dues of Rs 221 crore. Out of the cases filed in the High Court, 273 are related to the mobile towers. These cases are amounting to Rs 390 crore of tax dues.
Some government offices are also defaulting in payment of property taxes to the Pune Municipal Corporation. The irrigation department has defaulted with Rs 53.31 crore tax dues. Also the defence deaprtments, BSNL, MSEDCL, IISER owe around Rs 50 crore to the PMC.
There are several defaulters who have not appealed against the PMC in the courts. Recovery from such defaulters should be made on priority. If the PMC focuses on such high profile defaulters, it will recover more amount than the Abhay scheme for defaulters with relatively lesser dues.