Pune, 2nd December 2025: The Maharashtra government has scrapped the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) 2022 resolution fee hike in hoarding. The move has delivered a major setback to PMC, which had aimed to boost revenue through revised outdoor advertising charges.
Because the resolution has been cancelled, PMC must now return to the older fee of ₹111 per square feet, as earlier ordered by the court. The civic administration has been instructed to finalise a new hoarding fee structure within the next 15 days. Until these revised rates are approved, PMC cannot issue any new hoarding permits.
Across Pune, major roads and junctions are filled with large advertising hoardings, many of which have been accused of violating state guidelines. Several activists allege that some structures were erected with the indirect approval of civic officials, and that action against illegal hoardings has been inconsistent.
The dispute between PMC’s Sky Sign Department and advertising businesses is not new. For almost ten years, the civic body did not revise hoarding fees. In 2022, it proposed a sharp increase to around ₹700 per square feet, calculated using an assumed annual rise of 10% over the decade.
However, many hoarding owners challenged this hike in court and also approached the state government, claiming the increase was excessive. Following these complaints, the state has now officially cancelled PMC’s 2022 fee-hike decision.
Additional Commissioner Prithviraj B.P. said that the administration has begun gathering updated information on advertising rates. Based on this data, PMC will prepare a fresh proposal to be placed before the Standing Committee and later the General Body for approval. The new rates will come into effect only after this process is completed.
