Property tax defaulters will face real music throughout year

The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) property tax department is turning Pied Piper again to recover outstanding dues of Rs600 crore. The move follows successful recovery of dues by having bands play outside the homes of defaulters on experimental basis. This time, the department has decided to carry out the exercise outside the property tax defaulters’ houses throughout the year for better recovery.

Last year, the property tax department came up with the idea and it worked: Bands played outside houses of defaulters and the property tax department recovered Rs30 crore of the dues.

Now, this year the property tax department has decided to continue the exercise as the outstanding dues have mounted to Rs600 crore. They have hired bands for the purpose with a special provision in PMC’s budget. This year, the PMC has recovered more than Rs2 crore so far through this method.

Hemant Nikam, head of PMC’s property tax department, said, “We have sent notices to  defaulters, but they do not bother to pay the tax. Therefore, we decided to play music outside their houses and out of embarrassment, these defaulters pay up. Since the strategy is working well for the department, we have decided to continue the exercise throughout the year for better recovery.”

This year, the department has set a target of Rs750 crore for collection of property tax and  collected Rs550 crore so far. “Apart from our target of Rs750 crore through regular collection of property tax, there is Rs600 crore tax pending. To recover that outstanding amount, we are going to continue the band strategy throughout the year,” Nikam added.