Pune: Civic body initiates ward-wise for self-occupancy certificates
Pune: Civic body initiates ward-wise for self-occupancy certificates
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has launched ward office-wise awareness drives to encourage property owners to file self-occupancy affidavits, which are necessary for availing tax discounts.
This initiative follows a poor response from property owners, leading to many losing their 40% discount and facing higher tax liabilities due to unfiled PT3 forms.
The PMC conducted a pilot project in the Sinhagad Road ward office to assess the status of affidavits. This project revealed issues such as self-occupied properties incorrectly receiving additional tax, prompting the ward-wise awareness drive. The survey data showed that 3,700 owners living in their own properties have lost the discount, while 2,300 property owners submitted false self-occupancy affidavits, claiming their rented properties as self-occupied.
Property owners do not need to visit the PMC headquarters to complete the PT3 form formalities; they can do so at their respective ward offices. PMC administrator Rajendra Bhosale mentioned that training will be provided to ward office officials to facilitate the process.
A 40% discount for self-occupied properties was introduced in 1970. However, this discount was not formalized into law by any state government for 54 years and was declared illegal by Union government auditors and scrapped in 2019. The civic administration sent SMSs to some property owners after a GIS mapping conducted in 2018, informing those who did not use their properties and had rented them out to submit the form.
Owners who submitted the PT3 form within the deadline can be reimbursed for additional tax paid since 2019 in future bills. However, those who have not submitted the form will not be eligible for retrospective reimbursement. The ward-wise drives to address issues related to the special discount will commence next month.
