Pune: Residents File Petition Against High And Unequal Property Tax Bills, High Court Issues Notice To PMC

Mubarak Ansari

Pune, 16th June 2021: The Bombay High Court has issued notice to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) after a petition was filed against discrimination in property tax. Many residents have alleged that they have received high and unequal property tax bills.

Aggrieved by the irregularities in the calculation and collection of property tax by PMC, IT professional Sandeep Mandloi from Balewadi and 40 other persons moved the Bombay High Court seeking various reliefs in this context. The HC heard the petition on 11th June and issued a notice to the PMC to respond by 24th June.

The PMC has been offering 40% concession to all self-occupied properties since 1970, however suddenly since 2019, a decision to cancel the 40% discount has been implemented only for some properties, leading to violation of fundamental principles of Equality, Horizontal Equity, among others. Even after filing several complaints, the PMC has not responded with proper clarifications.

According to the petition, in some cases, residents of the same society are receiving property tax bills of different amounts, and some amounts are almost double than others. Residents are not getting justifiable responses from the PMC even after repeated reminders.

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Some of the main issues raised in the petition are:

– Retrospective application of various GR’s and collection of tax in a retrospective and arbitrary manner.

– Lack of uniformity in tax calculation for similarly situated properties resulting in some residents getting remarkably high tax bills as compared to others in the same locality/society.

– Non-transparency and absence of reasonable communication from PMC.

– Mandatory requirement of serving of Special notices to various property owners not complied with by the PMC.

“This problem has remained unsolved for the past three years. PMC is charging a section of property owners in Pune almost double the property tax. This is a double blow for people during these tough times. I have personally met the Joint Municipal Commissioner of PMC (Tax) but have not received any solution so far”, said Mandloi.

Adv Satya Muley, representing the petitioners at the Bombay High court, said, “PMC cannot charge Property tax in an arbitrary, non-transparent and retrospective manner. Residents of Pune apparently are facing injustice for the past few years in the matter of calculation and collection of property tax by PMC. The tax calculation method and formula must be the same for all properties.”

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