Pune: Residents of Pune civic limits won’t have to cough up extra money in property tax and those in Pimpri Chinchwad are also likely to be spared the burden.PMC’s general body (GB) on Wednesday unanimously dismissed the proposal to hike property tax by 5% from the next fiscal. The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), too, is unlikely to increase it for the 2026-27 financial year in the absence of a standing committee — before which the tax hike proposal has to be tabled.In Pune civic limits, the administration had tabled the 5% tax hike proposal before the GB last week. The corporators across party lines told the civic administration to improve the tax recovery and bring more properties under the tax ambit, after rejecting the hike proposal.Leader of the House Ganesh Bidkar said the proposal was dismissed with the intention of not burdening the diligent taxpayers. The civic administration would have to take alternative measures to increase the earnings through property tax.The opposition parties, including NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), supported the rejection of the property tax hike proposal. BJP had decided to dismiss the proposed hike during the meeting of corporators before the GB.Leader of the Opposition Nilesh Nikam said many properties were still out of the property tax ambit and the recovery was not being done properly. There was a need to appoint more employees to improve the overall functioning of the property tax department, he said.Many corporators stressed that residents were facing problems in resolving issues pertaining to tax assessment. They demanded that the administration cleared all pending cases pertaining to property tax. Senior corporators Varsha Tapkir and Sachin Dodke said the employees involved in property tax-related work were not cooperative and it led to huge pendency.Arvind Shinde of Congress claimed that the property tax hike was dismissed after the intervention of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.In Pimpri Chinchwad, the civic body last revised property tax in 2013-14. A senior PCMC official said as per norms, any proposal to revise property tax must be submitted to the standing committee before Feb 20. “Given the current situation, it is unlikely that the standing committee would be formed before the deadline,” he said.Officials said the PCMC’s annual budget was likely to be placed directly before the GB for approval because of the delay in the formation of the standing committee. Over the past four years, the municipal commissioner presented and cleared the budget while functioning as the administrator in the absence of an elected body.
