The law committee of Pune Municipal Corporation objects to the recovery of property tax relief.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

In spite of removing the relief following a directive from the state government, the municipal authority may not recover a 40% discount granted to self-occupied property owners for almost 50 years. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Law Committee told the municipal administrative authorities, to withdraw the retrospective recovery of the tax scheme.

“Tax recovery will not be practical. It has been claimed by the municipal administration that it will calculate recovery amount according to the basic year 2010-11. But it will still be difficult to get the money back from property owners,” said Yogesh Samel, head of the PMC Law Committee.

In accordance with the plan implemented after Panshet floods, PMC offered a 40% discount in estate tax since the 1970s. The scheme was scrapped in accordance with the directive of the state government. The state also issued the PMC instructions to retrospectively recover the discount provided to estate owners.

The state government’s order did not need any corporate ratification. The suggestion to cancel the discount was tabled for “information” last month before the PMC’s standing committee.

“The new policy for old buildings should not be enforced. It’s incorrect to apply this directive retrospectively,” said Ajit Darekar, a representative of the law committee of the PMC.

According to the members of the committee, a week’s time has been given to the civic administration for further study of the matter. The civic administration’s report on the demand of the committee would be tabled in the next meeting.

A senior civic official said previously, “We are not sure how to perform the order with retrospective effect. The tax system has altered several occasions in five decades. It has been calculated with several other rebates. It will be probably difficult to calculate the tax amount for old housing buildings that used the concession.”

Another officer said, “The municipal body has begun to recover the tax with 100% charges from the new financial year. Civic administration will pursue the state’s policy. If any modifications need to be taken, the relevant committees will hold the call.”

The city has 11 lakh-evaluated properties, including those in the 11 combined villages, according to the data collected by PMC. Nearly 70% of them are self-occupied. Rented nearly 3.3 lakh properties. These houses’ owners did not get the discount benefit.