Residents may go to court over Panvel Municipal Corporation's property tax demand

The Panvel Municipal Corporation PMC Property Tax row is now gradually seeing a peoplersquos movement against the civic corporation for charging a higher tax retrospectively with no service provided to residents Legal experts and the MahaSEWA founder have threatened to take the matter to court if the state government fails to resolve the issue soonmidday had reported on June 18 in lsquoPanvel Municipal Corporationrsquos property tax demand angers Kharghar residentsrsquo that residents and flat owners within PMC have opposed dual and retrospective property tax While they have been paying service tax to CIDCO the PMC also wants them to pay property tax since 2016 when it was formedldquoAs the second wave of Covid19 is receding the PMC has served crores of rupees property tax notices to housing societies in Kharghar Taloja Kalamboli Kamothe etc This has given a jolt to the middleclass citizens residing in the areardquo said founder president of MahaSEWA CA Ramesh PrabhuPrabhu added ldquoPMC came into existence in the year 2016 But till date CIDCO is the development authority for Kharghar Taloja Kalamboli and Kamothe and flat purchasers in these areas had paid stamp duty development charges to it CIDCO is also recovering property tax PMCrsquos property tax notices are injustice to middleclass families especially during a pandemic when people are already facing pay cuts and job lossrdquoldquoWhy should people pay taxes to CIDCO and PMC both when PMC falls under category lsquoDrsquo class corporation and the taxes are being levied as a lsquoBrsquo and lsquoCrsquo category municipal corporation On what basis is the corporation levying such hefty charges We are taking up this matter with the state Urban Department UD 2 and with the Chief Ministerrsquos officerdquo said PrabhuPrabhu added that in a webinar this Sunday June 20 they have called all the aggrieved parties to express their views ldquoParticipants need to discuss their difficulties and the challenges they are facing with PMC and CIDCO in getting civic services and to decide the way forward whether to go for legal options or protest digital and fix meetings with concerned ministers to intervene in the matter We are also trying to rope in MLA Prashant Thakur CIDCO MD Sanjay Mukherjee and PMC Commissioner Sudhakar Deshmukh to join the panel discussionrdquo he saidldquoFor more and more people to get information on the PMC property tax we have been regularly organising online discussions We have called eminent legal experts and even Aditi Tatkare the state and Guardian minister to attend this Sundayrsquos panel discussion and to raise our residentsrsquo concerns to the appropriate authorities within the state governmentrdquo said Mangesh Ranawde Chairman of Kharghar Taloja Colonies Welfare Association KTCWAldquoI am looking forward to the meeting on Sunday and accordingly will take a decisionrdquo said Aditi Tatkare State and Guardian Minister of Raigad district Advocate Vinod Sampat founder president of Cooperative Societies Residentsrsquo Association who will participate in the webinar said ldquoA simple question is why should the common man be subjected to double taxation Why should CIDCO be entitled to collect money at the time of transfer of flat what additional services is it giving todayrdquolsquoMajor source of revenuersquoPrashant Thakur MLA BJP from Panvel said ldquoThere is a delay in collection of property tax by PMC and property tax is a major source of revenue generation for any civic corporation and the funds are utilised for providing improvised services to public The residents opposing the property tax have raised two concerns a double taxation from PMC when they have not been able to provide any service so far to residents and b seldom services from CIDCO even after paying service charges As an elected MLA of BJP party even BJP is equally against double taxation and demands a legitimate fair taxation policyrdquoldquoA resolution to this effect was already passed by the PMCrsquos general body in March 2021 but by the time it could have been implemented we faced more restrictions due to Covid19 We have also written to the state government With the situation easing we have taken up this issue on a war footing and will get an amicable solutionrdquo said Thakur