Marriage halls, malls, hotels to pay cleanliness tax

PUNE: The standing committee of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on Wednesday approved a hike in entertainment tax as well as the collection of a special cleanliness tax from marriage halls, shopping malls, lodging and boarding establishments, canteens, restaurants, auditoriums, hospitals and hotels. However, it rejected the civic administration's proposal to hike other taxes.

Shahaji Pawar, assistant commissioner and chief of the property tax department, said this is the first time a special cleanliness tax would be imposed.

"The tax was proposed since the PCMC has to make more effort to clear the garbage generated from commercial properties. The tax will meet some of the expenditure incurred for cleanliness," he said.

The weekly standing committee meeting was held on Wednesday since Tuesday's meeting was adjourned. The standing committee approved the proposed municipal taxes for 2011-12 and sent it for further approval of the civic general body.

According to Prashant Shitole, chairman of the standing committee, the standing committee rejected the civic administration's proposal to hike general and other taxes.

He said the administration had proposed a special cleanliness tax at five per cent of the annual rateable value (ARV) but the standing committee had reduced it to two per cent.

The civic administration has proposed a ten-fold increase in entertainment tax for 2011-12 which has been approved. The civic administration has also proposed a hike in per show charges for theatres with a seating capacity of 500 or more from Rs 25 to Rs 250. Marathi films are exempt from the tax for 2011-12 and the per show charges for plays, circus (carnival), musical programmes, classical musical programmes (in or out of theatre) will be increased from Rs 50 to Rs 100. The per show charges for tamasha Marathi folk dance has been hiked to Rs 100 from the existing Rs 20.

The standing committee approved developmental projects with a total expenditure of Rs 11.25 crore at the weekly meeting. A resolution for covering the nullahs under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme at an expenditure of Rs 8.11 crore was also approved as was another resolution for laying storm-water drains at an expenditure of Rs 2.29 crore.