Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is likely to extend the deadline to avail a rebate on property tax bill till June 30. The standing committee has already approved the deadline extension from May 31 to June 30.
Around 5 to 10 per cent rebate in property tax is given to those taxpayers who pay the tax in the first two months (April to May) after generation of bills. PMC offers a 10 per cent rebate on property tax below Rs 25,000 and 5 per cent on tax above Rs 25,000.
The civic body sends bills by post. However, it could not print bills due to COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, e- bills were sent to around seven lakh taxpayers. PMC has also appealed them to pay bills online. The administration has e-mail addresses of seven lakh taxpayers, of the total 10.50 lakh taxpayers.
Maximum revenue collection in April-May
Maximum taxpayers pay tax during April-May as they get 5 to 10 per cent rebate on property tax bills. According to the tax department officials, PMC gets around Rs 700 crore during April-May.
Standing Committee decision
In the backdrop of COVID-19 outbreak, PMC is not getting good response from taxpayers. Till date, bills amounting to Rs 73 crore have been paid online by 82,000 taxpayers. PMC had collected Rs 170 crore during the same period last year. Therefore, the standing committee decided to extend the rebate deadline to June 30.
PMC Standing Committee Chairman Hemant Rasane said, "Most of the people pay tax in cash. But they cannot come out to pay tax due to the lockdown. So we decided to extend the rebate deadline to increase tax collection."
When contacted, PMC Property Tax Department Head Vilas Kanade said, "The civic administration has not taken any decision yet. We will take an appropriate decision about that in May."
As per details given by the property tax department, PMC collects the highest tax revenue during April and May. In this period, it gets 20 per cent of the total collection in cash.
