PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has now told housing societies to add property tax arrears of flat owners on their share certificates, a key document held by homeowners who’re part of a society.
PCMC officials said they’ve also written to the District Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Housing Societies of Pune, with the suggestion that those who’ve not paid their property tax be disallowed from voting in housing society elections.
But the move has come under fire, with members of citizens’ groups saying a municipal corporation had no legal right to enforce such a decision.
“As per by-laws, housing societies cannot add property tax dues on the share certificate. If the authorities have to introduce any such provision, certain amendments have to be made by the deputy registrar in the current by-laws. So, it would be difficult for society members to implement PCMC’s directives,” said Dattatray Deshmukh, chairman of Pimpri Chinchwad Cooperative Housing Societies Federation.
Deshmukh said societies have the provision to propose cancellation of voting rights for members who haven’t paid maintenance charges, but there was no provision to revoke voting rights of property tax defaulters. Sanjivan Sangle, chairman of Chikhali Moshi Pimpri Chinchwad Cooperative Housing Societies Federation, said, “The directives mentioned in PCMC’s letter are against the law.”
PCMC has started sharing a list of flat owners with pending tax arrears with the chairpersons and secretaries of the housing societies. A senior PCMC official said property tax worth over Rs 180 crore was due against 77,886 flats in 6,644 housing societies across the twin cities. Once the dues are added to the share certificate, the flat owners, while selling their flats, would have to first clear the dues to get an NOC from the housing society, the official said.
“In many cases, the flats are sold, and details of new owners are not updated with the property tax department, due to which the property tax remains unpaid, and the new owners are not even aware of it. We have also appealed to the property owners to update their mobile numbers so that we can send them updates on pending dues,” the PCMC official said.
A senior official from the DDR office confirmed there was no provision in the by-laws to add pending tax dues on the share certificate. “However, societies can still mention dues on a register and at least inform new owners whenever a property is sold so that the sums can be paid,” he said.
When asked about the objections from housing societies, Avinash Shinde, assistant municipal commissioner and head of PCMC’s property tax department, said: “We are ready to discuss the matter with housing societies and DDR if it is not mentioned in the by-laws.” Shinde added that the decision was taken because PCMC has been faced with “too many restrictions” while taking action against tax defaulters in housing societies.
“For an independent house, we cut water supply if the owner fails to pay tax dues in time. We also add the pending dues on the 7/12 land record document of the owner. But such things cannot be implemented in housing societies,” Shinde said.
