RTI query on property tax shows PMC has dyscalculia

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.

So, 7 feet 3 inches would be 7.25 feet and 4 feet 5 inches would be 4.41 feet. But if one goes ahead with the multiplication without conversion by making 7 feet 3 inches 7.3 feet and 4 feet 5 inches 4.5 feet, the area would work out to nearly 33 square feet. If the multiplication is done after the required conversion, the area we get is about 32 square feet.

We see that the miscalculation leads to a considerable difference of a square foot in the calculated area. Sadly, this is exactly what the PMC has been doing. "This is just an illustrative example," Yadwadkar said. "Differences can be much greater. In one such case, the actual area should have been 637 square feet, but the PMC miscalculated it as 587 square feet. It worked in favour of the property holder in this case; the owner ended up paying 8.5 per cent less property tax."

Wide off the mark
A look at one such tax receipt would be more than convincing. The size of the various rooms in the particular property have been calculated and then summed up to get the total area. As seen in the receipt, the total area calculated by the PMC is mentioned as 399 square feet. But a correct calculation after conversion of values into feet puts the total area at 367 square feet.

The Other Side
Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Accounts and Taxes) Vilas Kanade claimed that they knew the right method of calculation of area and such mistakes must have taken places in isolated cases. "We rectify miscalculations
as well when people approach us with cases," he said. When it was pointed out that several such flawed cases of property tax had been procured using RTI, Kanade said that the issue will be investigated if discrepancies are encountered.