Civic body makes elementary mistake in conversion of inches to feet, ends up with wrong results for areau00a0

People in the country may have become used to the regular surfacing of scams, red tape and mismanagement in government bodies, but the fact that government bodies cannot do simple arithmetic may come as a shock to you. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been making a very silly mathematical mistake while calculating the area of properties in the city for the purpose of levying general property tax. This has been revealed by a series of Right to Information (RTI) applications filed by civic activist Sarang Yadwadkar.


Maths wrong: An RTI application has shown the PMC has goofed up in
calculating the areas of several flats

Yadwadkar procured copies of several receipts on which property tax calculations of flats were shown, and these were examined by MiD DAY. It was discovered that authorities at the PMC have been overlooking a simple mathematical rule, one which deals with converting the 'inches' component into 'feet'. The repercussions, whether in favour or against the interests of property owners, are staggering when the eventual, magnified error is ascertained. The PMC accidentally overcharges or undercharges property tax in a number of cases.


Au00a0tax receipt of the PMC shows the total area calculated to be 399
square feet, whereas the area should be 367 square feet if the correct
method is employed

How error happens
The following is an example to illustrate exactly what the calculation error is, how it affects the computing of the tax, and the correct method which needs to be adhered to. Consider you want to calculate an area where the length is 7 feet 3 inches and the breadth is 4 feet 5 inches. Now, before following the known rule of multiplying the length with the breadth (ie 7 feet 3 inches x 4 feet 5 inches) to get the area, we have to first convert the individual dimensions into feet.