The Times of India  18.11.2010

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has collected Rs 103.61 crore as property tax till November 13.

This is just Rs 3 crore short of the entire property tax collected in the previous year. The PCMC had collected Rs 106 crore of property tax in 2009-10 and, for the first time, had crossed the Rs 100-crore mark.

Shahaji Pawar, assistant commissioner and chief of the property tax department, said: "Targets were given to the officials and emphasis was laid on personally meeting big defaulters. The administrative officers were asked to visit people who had arrears ranging Rs 3 lakh to 5 lakh. The assistant zonal officers were to meet those having arrears between Rs 1 lakh and 3 lakh, and clerks met people who owed between Rs 50,000 and 1 lakh."

Review meetings of zonal and administrative officials were held regularly to monitor the progress. Also, the records of 15 zonal offices were checked to verify whether bills were distributed on time and records of collections maintained, Pawar said.

The property tax bills were distributed early giving the people ample time to pay.

Pawar said that the department hoped to achieve annual collection of Rs 125 crore by March 31.

"The department will soon begin the process of seizing properties of big defaulters. They will be served notices and directed to clear their arrears. If they fail to clear the arrears, then the PCMC will auction their properties to recover the arrears."

The PCMC has decided to charge two per cent penalty per month for delay in payment. Pawar said, "People have to pay their property tax for the first six months of the financial year by September 30. If they do not pay, two per cent fine will be collected from October 1 onwards. Tax for the remaining six months has to be paid by December 31, failing which fine will be collected from January 1 onwards."

Thergaon zone collected the highest amount of property tax at Rs 11.44 crore by November 13, followed by the municipal office zone (Rs 11.3 crore) and Akurdi (Rs 10.69 crore). Pimprinagar had the lowest collection (Rs 1.43 crore), followed by Kiwale (Rs 1.61 crore).

Total property tax collection through online payment was Rs 4.73 crore.

The Hindu  18.11.2010

Owners told to clean vacant sites

Staff Reporter

Site owners to pay charges along with property tax

Bangalore: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), in its new diktat, has urged vacant site owners in the city to clear those sites within a week's time. If the site owners fail to do so, the civic authority will clean the sites.

BBMP officials said that the civic authority would remit the charges of cleaning the sites and owners would have to pay it along with their property tax.

They said that for cleaning one square metre, the BBMP would charge Rs. 1.10 and for transportation of every cubic metre of waste collected from the sites, the owners would have to pay the civic authority Rs. 68. If the civic authority cleans the site more than once, the charges would treble.

The BBMP has issued the diktat under Section 463 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1974.

Officials said that a similar order has been issued in January 2003.

Another order was issued as recently as June 2010 by the then Commissioner Bharatlal Meena.

Commissioner Siddaiah has now urged officials to ensure that the order is implemented across the city immediately. The onus is now on the jurisdictional Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE).

“The AEE, after cleaning the sites, has to send the details to the Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO) concerned. The ARO will have to include the charges in both the property registers and the computerised records,” officials said.

Residents may also call the BBMP control room of the vacant sites with overgrowth and garbage by calling (080) 22975595, 22221188, 22100031.