Property tax up by 11 pc

However,Opposition parties —BJP,Shiv Sena and MNS — have opposed the hike,saying it would burden tax payers and benefit tax evaders. “The PMC instead of improving its tax assessment and recovery system to increase the revenue collection through property tax has burdened the regular tax payers. There are many properties which are not in the ambit of property tax but continue to get the services without paying,” said BJP leader Mukta Tilak.

Nikam justified the increase to manage the financial affairs of the civic body and development of the city.

The civic administration had proposed 20 per cent charge of annual ratable value (ARV) of property as against the existing 13 per cent,but the standing committee gave a nod to 16 per cent. Similarly,the water benefit tax was proposed to be five per cent instead of the existing two per cent. It will now be three per cent for 2010-11.

The sewage tax and road tax was four and five per cent respectively and the civic administration had proposed a 10 per cent hike. The standing committee agreed for six per cent and 8.5 per cent sewage tax and road tax. It was also decided to introduce one per cent education cess in property tax.

The civic body has introduced a new slab for properties owned by Information Technology and levy tax more than the residential charges. The IT companies till now were having tax holiday as per the government IT policy. However,the plan will be applicable for new properties owned by IT companies,Nikam said.

Shiv Sena leader Shyam Deshpande said the saffron combine shared power last year in PMC and did not allow any hike in property tax,but the Congress-NCP alliance have burdened the common citizens with the increase. “The PMC should take a cue from PCMC which has not introduced any tax hike but increased the tax on industrial properties,” he said.

“The administration has failed to achieve the set target for the present fiscal and could hardly spend any amount on development work. Most of the expenses have been only for administrative work and salaries,” said corporator Ujjwal Keskar.

The property tax dues are Rs 100 crore but the civic administration has failed to recover them,he said. Congress leader Ulhas Bagul said it was necessary to increase the tax as the expenditure of the civic body was increasing. “ It was unanimously decided by all political parties not to increase tax and instead to do it in 2010-11 but Sena,BJP and MNS have forgotten it,” he said.