PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is cracking down on property tax defaulters by confiscating their properties. The civic body has already confiscated 600 properties of about Rs500 crore market value.“Notices were issued to the tax defaulters. Those who ignored the notices, faced stringent action. Their properties have been confiscated as a last resort to recover the tax,” said Vilas Kanade, the head of PMC’s property tax department. Officials said if the owners failed to clear the arrears, their properties will be auctioned off to recover the tax dues.Activists said the civic body should make sure that it actually makes financial gains out of the properties that it has confiscated. “The notional attachments of the properties will not be of any help. In most cases, such confiscations do not help,” said Vishwas Sahastrabuddhe of the Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizens’ group.The PMC standing committee had scrapped the proposal to hike property tax and instructed the administration to focus on recovering dues. “Efforts must be made to recover pending property tax dues instead of asking citizens to pay more,” standing committee chairperson Yogesh Mulik said.The PMC has collected Rs1,031 crore as property tax till now in the 2018-19 fiscal year.Officials said the revenue is likely to go up during the next fiscal, ie. 2019-20, as more properties have been added to the PMC limits.The civic body has registered over 1.67 lakh properties in the newly merged 11 villages and the number of properties in the municipal limits has crossed the 10lakh mark. The civic administration is hoping to earn around Rs1,600 crore from the tax in 2019-20 financial year.

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