‘Publish list of property tax defaulters’

Civic activist, Vivek Velankar has demanded that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) publish the list of top property tax defaulters.

In a letter to municipal commissioner, Mahesh Pathak on behalf of newly formed Pune Nagrik Sanghatana (PNS), Velankar said the total property tax dues of the PMC are over Rs420 crore. The PMC should publish in the media a list of 25 top defaulters in each of the categories - residential, commercial and government - with prior 15 days’ warning to the property owners concerned.

He said many banks follow the strategy of publishing information of defaulters. If the PMC publishes such a list, then there is a possibility that many defaulters would pay up.

The PMC should also file caveats in the court regarding the top 100 defaulters of property tax so that they cannot get a stay by the court on any action by the PMC to recover the dues, he said.

Thanks to an inquiry under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) by activist Vishwas Sahastrabuddhe, it was recently revealed that there are property tax dues of Rs420 crore and the defaulters include central and state government offices, education institutes, religious places and individuals.

Sahastrabuddhe had asked for information from the property tax department of the PMC. He had asked for information about properties for which dues are at least Rs25,000.

Velankar said thanks to the reply it was clear that there are dues of Rs420 crore till March 31, 2011. Amongst these defaulters, 24,000 residential property owners have dues of Rs185 crore while the dues of 16,000 commercial property holders are Rs180 crore.

He said 75 government and semi-government offices have property tax dues of Rs9 crore. There are 210 court cases on property tax pending and the total due amount related to these cases is Rs44 crore.