PUNE: About 35% of the properties in the PCMC limits are not registered with the property tax department, an ongoing survey revealed.
The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) administration has outsourced the survey to an agency to assign a Unique Property Identification Code (UPIC), which will serve as a unique ID for all properties within the PCMC jurisdiction.
Property owners can take advantage of various services using this ID, such as paying taxes to the civic body.
“The numbering of properties has started in multiple areas, but the primary focus for now is on Bhosari, Wakad and Pimpri Waghere. All other areas will also be covered. As the survey teams are numbering each property, it has come to our notice that around 35% of these properties are not registered with the property tax department. So, PCMC has not received property tax from them,” said Pradeep Jambhale Patil, additional municipal commissioner of PCMC.
A significant number of unregistered properties are in the Wakad area.
Numbering for 3,05,573 properties has been completed so far. Around 300 people from the agency have been working on the field over the last six months, and the complete survey, along with the internal measurement of each property, is likely to be completed in another 1.5 years.
“At present, over six lakh properties are registered with the property tax department. Considering the data of the properties surveyed till now, around two to three lakh unregistered properties are likely to be unearthed at the end of the survey,” Patil said.
The municipal corporation will soon start serving notices to these property owners, urging them to register with the civic body.
“The expected property tax is around Rs 600 crore, but once these unregistered properties are added, the expected annual tax amount is likely to double,” said a civic official.
Officials said details of unregistered properties were not revealed in the past as such an extensive survey was not conducted before, and property owners availed of the benefits.
“PCMC is likely to recover pending taxes from these property owners as rules permit the civic body to recover dues for up to last six years,” the official said.
Officials have also come across other issues with these properties during the internal measurement.
“It has come to our notice that many properties, which are registered for residential purposes, are being used for commercial purposes. As a result, the area registered with the municipal corporation does not match the area of the property on the ground,” an official said.
The civic body has done internal measurements of around 45,000 properties so far. The teams measured the property on the ground to match it with PCMC records.
According to a civic official, who chose to stay unnamed, many property owners have changed the structure of their properties, and accordingly, their taxes should be revised. “However, since the property is not registered, changes in a new property do not come under the tax ambit and are considered illegal,” he said.
