Pune civic body mistakenly sends SMS to pay property tax due, later clarifies

Pune: The Municipal Commissioner of Pune has clarified that the people who received SMS to make additional payments towards property tax need not pay the amount. The top official said that the messages were inadvertently sent due to some technical glitch and the residents can ignore them.

Around 60,000 property owners across the city received a message from the civic body that asked them to pay their outstanding property tax. This has shocked the citizens as many have already paid their dues.

The state government in 2019 had scrapped a 40 percent tax discount for self-occupied properties, that was being offered since 1970. The PMC was directed to recover the dues from residential properties with a retrospective effect from 2019. The latest message was regarding this difference amount.

However, Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar later said citizens do not require to pay the arrears until a further decision is taken, despite receiving the messages.

People have been protesting against the decision to withdraw the tax discount and have been demanding to restore it. The PMC had earlier passed a resolution and sent it to the state government demanding the restoration of the rebate, but it was rejected. The corporation further requested the government not to recover concession arrears, but instead implement it from this year. A final decision on this is yet to be taken.

Meanwhile, some residents are also planning to move the court against the municipal administration in this matter.