PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) recently released its Environment Status Report (ESR), highlighting that the number of beneficiaries receiving discounts on property tax for adhering to green building norms has doubled over the past six years.
This raises a critical question: Are these positive outcomes visible on the ground? Citizens, activists, and experts are calling for improved oversight of compliance by local authorities.
The ‘green discount’ offers property owners a 5-10% reduction in property tax if they have installed solar and vermicomposting systems. According to PMC’s ESR, around 86,000 property owners benefitted from this incentive in 2019-20, which surged to about 1.5 lakh in 2024-25. Notably, beneficiaries surpassed the 1-lakh mark for the first time in 2020-21 and have maintained that level through the last financial year.
However, environmentalists argue that the civic body lacks an effective system to verify whether these green facilities are operational.
In response, PMC officials stated that they conduct surprise inspections and direct property owners to rectify any deficiencies discovered during these checks.
According to PMC data, prior to 2017, there were approximately 8.5 lakh properties in civic areas. After merging with 11 villages, this number grew to around 10 lakh. An additional 2 lakh properties were brought under the PMC tax umbrella after the merger of 23 villages in 2021. Currently, there are at least 12.5 lakh properties within PMC limits.
The PMC has set a revenue target of ₹2,492.83 crore from building permissions for the 2024-25 fiscal year, with a similar expectation of ₹2,549.79 crore from the property tax department.
Interestingly, the property tax department collected about ₹2,360 crore this fiscal, while the building permissions department exceeded its targets, achieving around ₹2,600 crore.
In the previous fiscal year, the building permissions department also outperformed property tax collections, earning over ₹2,300 crore compared to approximately ₹2,268 crore from the latter.
Amidst the noticeable increase in building permits in the city, activists are urging for stricter compliance monitoring to ensure adherence to green standards. Social activist Vijay Kumbhar stated, “The civic body mandated these installations. Thus, they must ensure they are operational.”
Suhas Patwardhan, chairman of the Pune District Co-Operative Housing Federation, concurred, saying, “These facilities are essential, benefiting both housing societies and the environment by minimizing fossil fuel use. Our organization promotes awareness of such initiatives in communities, but consistency in implementation is lacking.”
Avinash Sakpal, head of PMC’s property tax department, informed TOI that the civic administration performs annual surveys with assistance from ward offices. If any property owner fails to maintain the facilities, health officials from the ward offices report this, leading to the revocation of the tax discount.
