Mumbai: HC rejects Kharghar Federation's plea against property tax by PMC

The High Court paved the way for the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) to collect property tax smoothly as it rejected a writ petition filed by Kharghar Co-op. Housing Societies Federation Ltd challenging the retrospective tax collection by the corporation. The court dismissed the petition on the ground that it cannot stand in law or on facts (not entertainable and not maintainable).

The court also observed that entertaining this petition would open floodgates of litigation before this Court and even create problems for other civic bodies in the state.

Khargar node also included in corporation

A hearing was held on March 30 in the High Court before a bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Justice RN Ladda and on April 6, the court pronounced the decision by rejecting the petition.

The PMC was formed with 29 villages including CIDCO developed nodes on October 1, 2016. Kharghar node which was developed by CIDCO was also included in the corporation. As per the civic body, there are 2,68,718 properties within its jurisdiction to levy and collect municipal taxes.

Despite PMC's formation, CIDCO kept collecting service charges

Despite the PMC being formed, CIDCO kept collecting service charges and other charges. In January 2019, the general body of PMC passed a proposal to collect property tax. In 2020, the corporation started sending notices to residents to pay taxes since it came into existence.

Kharghar housing societies received notices for payment of property taxes. As residents were already paying service charges to CIDCO, they opposed civic taxes. They also opposed retrospective taxes as the proposal to collect taxes was passed in 2019. The different organisations approached the court against the collection of property tax and in one case, the court rejected the petition.

Khargar Co-op housing societies to hold meeting on Sunday

The municipal commissioner Ganesh Deshmukh has appealed to citizens to contribute to the development of the city by paying their property tax. Meanwhile, Kharghar Co-op. Housing Societies Federation Ltd will hold a meeting on Sunday on the decision of the court and further course of action.