While residents under the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) have been opposing the dual and retrospective property tax, the civic body launched an online payment option for paying property tax. The civic body has even offered a 5 percent rebate for paying till March 15 and additional 2 percent for making the payment online.
This is the first time that the civic body is collecting property tax since its inception in 2016. Earlier, residents were paying property tax to gram panchayat and service tax to CIDCO.
Netra Kiran Patil, a BJP Corporator from Kharghar has submitted a memorandum of demand to the municipal commissioner and mayor requesting them to collect property tax when the proposal was passed in the general body. "The general body had passed a proposal of property tax collection on January 2019 with tax slabs. However, the civic body has sent a notice to citizens asking to pay property tax since the civic body came into existence," said Patil. The civic body was formed in October 2016.
However, the retrospective tax collection did not go well with citizens and they have started opposing it. In addition, a few areas under the PMC pay service charges for various facilities to CIDCO. Now, they say why do they pay multiple taxes. "If we are paying property tax, the service charge should not be collected from us," said a resident Pramila Tawade, a sector 12 Kharghar resident.
Meanwhile, the civic body claimed that it had given sufficient time to citizens to pay the tax. A senior official from the Property Tax department said that a major part of revenue comes from property tax. While properties part of the old Panvel Municipal Council was already paying taxes, the new properties added after the formation of the corporation have not paid taxes so far. And, this is why a retrospective tax is being collected. He added that the civic body is giving a total of 7 percent rebate in property tax paid before March 15 through online.
