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The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) does not want to take legal action against property tax defaulters for depositing bouncing cheques for the amnesty scheme. It plans to recover the dues by penalising the defaulters, despite having powers to file a police complaint.
Mayor Prashant Jagtap said that the civic administration would make efforts to reach out to the defaulters and recover the dues. He added the civic body would not take action against the defaulters whose cheques had bounced but give them the benefit of the amnesty scheme if cash payment was done before the deadline. “The penalty would not be waived for those property tax defaulters who pay after time for the scheme is over,” he said.
A total of 1,337 of the 42,301 cheques deposited after the amnesty scheme was introduced had bounced. However, the civic administration has failed to initiate any action against the defaulters.
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In the standing committee meeting, RPI (A) leader Siddarth Dhende had raised the issue of revenue collection under the amnesty scheme.
The PMC had launched an amnesty scheme for property tax defaulters, with 75 per cent discount in penalty if payment was made by February, and 50 per cent discount, if payment was made by March. The civic administration had claimed a collection of Rs 216.55 crore and said the scheme would enable property tax owners to fall in line and pay tax regularly.
According to the civic administration, a total of 42,301 cheques for property tax were deposited under the amnesty scheme and 1,337 cheques, amounting to Rs 9.34 crore, bounced back. However, 790 defaulters later paid in cash but the remaining 547, who need to pay a total amount of Rs 2.96 crore, have not yet.
