The Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC), which was slow on the recovery of property tax, will be aggressive in days to come. The civic body has published an advertisement warning a penalty for the delayed payment of property tax. The civic body is offering a rebate of upto15 per cent for payment of property tax till July 31. The rebate includes 5 per cent for paying tax online.
It is believed that the civic administration had not taken any coercive action for not paying property tax or a delayed payment due to pressure from the political parties. Since the term of the corporation ended on July 9, the civic body is now being run by an administrator. In the advertisement, the civic body said that the Bombay High Court has not stayed the collection of the property tax. Going further, the civic body claimed that property tax holders lost Rs 118 crore for not availing the waiver of 15 per cent earlier.
In June 2022, the Bombay High Court provided a major relief to residents living under the PMC by restraining the civic body from taking any coercive action against the property tax defaulters. The court had also questioned the retrospective property tax collection by the corporation. Now, a section of citizens under the guidance of former corporator Leena Garad decided to wait till the court’s decision on the payment of property tax.
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 panchayats and service tax to CIDCO. A section of residents demanded that property tax should be collected from when the proposal was passed in the general body. However, the civic body has been collecting since it came into existence, which means 2016.
