New tax for fringe villages okayed

The villages were merged within the PMC limit on September 11 last year and a budgetary provision of Rs 20 crore was made towards development works. The PMC had set up teams to assess the rateable value of all the properties in these villages.

While the civic administration had submitted the docket finalising the new tax structure to the standing committee, the decision had been pending as opinions had been sought from the party leaders in the PMC. While the PMC will issue tax bills within eight days, it was decided to levy tax at the rate assessed by the gram panchayat from April 1998.

The proposal fixing a new tax structure aims at recovering property tax at the rate of 20 per cent of that applied in the earlier limits of the PMC. While the rate is fixed at 20 per cent during 1999-2000, there will be a subsequent increase in the tax over the period of five years, for the convenience of the people. A likely revenue of Rs 1.5 crore is expected in the first year after the property tax is levied as per the new structure.

Meanwhile, the general body meeting of the PMC witnessed a heated debate over the `study tour’ of the Tree Authority members to Shimla in the last week of October. Corporator Ramdas Pawar raised the issue by seeking details of the number of members who went on the tour apart from the cost incurred by the administration.

A section of the press had reported that there had been misuse of PMC funds as members had taken their kith and kin for the study tour. Even as Pawar sought to obtain more details from the administration, surprisingly, a majority of the corporators refrained from supporting him. In fact Sanjay Balgude quipped that it would be a vastra-haran for several party members.

Pawar pointed out Girikand Travels who was supposed to have made travel reservations for the elected members who went on the tour, instead had different names on its list. Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Agarwal read out the list of 17 members who participated in the study tour after a gap of 10 years and informed that they had submitted various reports suggesting new schemes. He said there was budgetary provision of Rs 3 lakh and the per head cost amounted to Rs 17,000.