PUNE: The Pune Municipal
Corporation’s decision to involve women’s self-help groups (SHGs) and
NGOs in distribution of property tax bills has helped increase the
collection by three times this year as compared to the previous fiscal.

“The civic administration wants to improve bill distribution so that
more citizens pay their bills on time. So, a target-based system for
bill distribution has been set up wherein the NGOs and women self-help groups have been engaged to carry out the work,” said Hemant Nikam, the head of PMC’s property tax department.

Nikam said that over 400 people, including women from SHGs, have been
assigned the task of distributing bills. Each individual has been asked
to meet the target of 500 bills a day. The civic body maintains a record
of the distribution where they also cross-verify the details. The PMC
has to distribute 7.5 lakh bills out of which 6.5 lakh bills have
already been dispatched.

Nikam said that the department has mopped up three times more revenue in April than last year, due to proper bill distribution.

Nikam said that the number of bill submissions have also increased
three-fold. In April 2012, the civic department had earned about Rs 40
crore whereas in April 2013, the department mopped up Rs 117 crore.
Also, tax for nearly 61,000 properties was paid in April 2012, while the
number has gone up to 1.61 lakh in April 2013.

For the civic
body, property tax is one of the main sources of revenue. The department
handles the billing and collection of property tax on residential,
commercial, plots and other types of properties – held privately or by
the government (state and central) – within the PMC limits.

Property tax is the tax charged on immovable or tangible real property,
such as land, buildings and any permanent improvement. Based on PMC’s
assessments, all property holders are expected to pay the taxPMC
assesses all residential and commercial properties situated within its
limits

. Property tax may also include basic house or building
tax plus service taxes such as street tax, and conservancy or scavenging
tax. The tax is collected either half yearly or annually.