Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is facing revenue loss as the State government transferred only Rs 50 crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) dues in PMC coffers, of a total of Rs 135 crore for April. On the other hand, the Property Tax Department collected only Rs 62 crore in the first two weeks of the month.
The PMC has started feeling the pinch due to revenue loss as the lockdown amid the coronavirus has been extended. The civic body has three major sources of revenue - property tax, GST aid from the State government and the building permission and development charges.
The State government transfers the GST aid to all municipal bodies every month. The State receives a subsidy from the Central government while the State disburses it to the civic bodies. The PMC gets the GST aid in the first week of every month.
As per PMC Chief Accountant Department officials, PMC has received the instalment of March. The aid instalment of April is around Rs 135 crore. But they got only Rs 50 crore in the second week of April. The State has not communicated about the remaining amount. The State gives around Rs 2,000 crore to PMC as GST aid. It is a major portion of revenue.
The PMC Property Tax Department emailed tax bills to property taxpayers for the year 2020-21 from April 1. In the first two weeks, the civic body collected only Rs 62 crore. Of the 10.5 lakh taxpayers, only 72,000 have paid the tax till date. Last year, the PMC had collected around Rs 140 crore in the same period.
The PMC is not getting the building development charges as construction activity has been completely stopped. Meanwhile, the civic body received Rs 2 crore to take steps to control the COVID-19 outbreak. It had demanded Rs 5 crore to tackle the outbreak. Till date, the PMC has spent Rs 2 crore on containing the epidemic.
