Heated debates even leading out to walkout by opposition over the issue of collecting penalty from property tax defaulters during a council meeting of the Belagavi city corporation.
The Mayor approved an unanimous resolution seeking waiver of the penalty component of the property tax which is 2% per month.
It was also decided to take punitive action against the officials concerned from the Revenue section for their alleged lapses to collect taxes from the property owners for nearly 12 years since 2003-04.
Pandhari Pundalik Parab said that collecting the property dues along with penalty according to their whims and fancies of the officials, which was more than 2 per cent as per the provisions under Section 112 C of the KMC Act, 1976 will not be tolerated. He said the corporation should collect tax dues but without penalty.
Even the leader of opposition Ramesh Sontakki supported the resolution but said a fixed time frame must be given for the payment.