Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has withheld the salaries of 37 property tax inspectors from Wagholi, Narhe, and Manjari Budruk.
These inspectors were found to have failed in submitting the property records from their respective Gram Panchayats to the Property Tax Department within the required timeframe.
Show-cause notices have been issued to the inspectors, according to Madhav Jagtap, the head of the PMC's Property Tax Department.
The PMC had initiated a campaign to integrate the property records of the 23 villages recently included in the Municipal Corporation’s jurisdiction. This initiative aimed to streamline property tax assessments by transferring data from the Gram Panchayats to the Municipal Corporation’s Property Tax Department.
The project was slated for completion by November of the previous year. However, records for approximately 16,000 properties, including several commercial spaces and large residential projects in Wagholi, Narhe, and Manjari Budruk, have yet to be transferred.
Despite efforts over the past three years, the Property Tax Department has already started sending tax bills and collecting dues from these properties based on the General Assembly’s orders. However, the lack of updated records from the Gram Panchayats continues to pose challenges, preventing proper tax assessments and causing financial losses to the Municipal Corporation.
The ongoing failure of the inspectors to submit these records prompted the Property Tax Department to issue multiple notices, which went unheeded. Consequently, the PMC decided to withhold the inspectors' salaries for August as a punitive measure.
The failure to incorporate property data from the Gram Panchayats of Wagholi, Narhe, and Manjari Budruk, which house over 16,000 properties, has resulted in a significant gap in the PMC’s property tax assessments. This lapse not only affects revenue collection but also hampers the overall financial stability of the Municipal Corporation.
Despite repeated reminders, the inspectors have not fulfilled their responsibilities, leading to the decision to freeze their salaries until compliance is achieved.
Madhav Jagtap, the head of Tax Assessment and Collection at PMC, emphasized the importance of accurate record-keeping for effective tax collection and reiterated the need for strict measures to ensure timely compliance by the officials involved.
