PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) reported a total revenue of approximately Rs 9,200 crore for the fiscal year 2025-26, falling short of its Rs 12,600 crore target by nearly Rs 3,400 crore. The primary cause of this revenue deficit came from the building permissions department, which earned only Rs 2,341 crore, compared to its expected Rs 2,853 crore.
Civic officials noted that challenges in recovering property taxes from newly merged areas and ongoing legal issues regarding land measurement have significantly hampered building permission grants. Activists criticized the administration for relying on amnesty schemes to boost revenue instead of effectively tackling long-term tax defaulters.
An official expressed confusion over this discrepancy, given the increase in registered taxpayers within the city’s limits. The decline in income from the building permissions department was particularly striking, as it had consistently surpassed targets in previous years. For instance, in 2022-23, the department collected Rs 1,635 crore against a target of Rs 1,400 crore and Rs 2,601 crore against a target of Rs 2,493 crore in 2024-25.
However, for 2025-26, PMC set a building permissions revenue target of Rs 2,853 crore but achieved only Rs 2,341 crore, resulting in a shortfall of around Rs 500 crore, with 3,984 building proposals approved that year. Anirudha Pawaskar, city engineer of PMC, stated that legal challenges regarding land measurement have significantly delayed proposal approvals, contributing to the revenue dip.
Furthermore, the property tax department also reported a decline in performance compared to the previous fiscal year. Revenue collected dropped from Rs 2,346 crore for 10.95 lakh properties in 2024-25 to Rs 2,030 crore in 2025-26, even as the number of properties increased to 11.33 lakh.
Despite this, overall property tax revenue climbed to Rs 2,985 crore, buoyed by an amnesty scheme for defaulters, which contributed Rs 955 crore. Vivek Velankar from the citizens’ group Sajag Nagrik Manch warned that frequent amnesty schemes send the wrong message to taxpayers, ultimately discouraging timely payments. He urged the administration to focus on improving regular tax collection instead of relying on such measures.
