3 lakh people to pay higher property tax in Chennai, Real Estate News, ET Real Estate

Chennai: Three lakh people, including owners of individual houses, educational institutions and commercial properties, will soon pay higher property tax in the city. The corporation will bring three lakh depreciated buildings under the ambit of property tax.

“We will outsource the evaluation work and it will start soon. This will give us an additional half-yearly revenue of ₹120 crore,” said Vishu Mahajan, deputy commissioner (revenue and finance).

Officials said that many buildings have been renovated or reconstructed over the years which are yet to be appraised. This campaign with the help of GIS mapping will help in achieving this.

The civic body used to get 30% revenue from property tax before the general revision and it is expected to increase to 50% after the general revision. With the corporation’s outstanding debt still running into several thousand crores, this additional revenue will help offset it.

K DhanasekaranThe chairman of the accounts standing committee of the municipal corporation said that several educational institutions and commercial establishments like gold showrooms are big violators. “Some private schools have done additional construction which needs to be mapped. These institutions are also tax defaulters. The corporation should use private agencies to collect tax from high-profile defaulters,” he said.

Several other measures like linking of Aadhaar with property registration and property tax payment would help, he said. “When a person is registering for a new building, if his Aadhaar is linked to property tax payment, the authorities can trace his default status and the no objection certificate for new registration can be withheld till the payment is made.” could,” he said.

While the move to outsource revenue collection has worked in some places like Ranchi, according to officials, it remains to be seen whether they can be implemented in the city. “We also have to see whether outsourcing tax collection will lead to any untoward incident. Secondly, tax-collection is a sovereign duty of the state and this is another point of view when it comes to outsourcing,” said the deputy commissioner.

Meanwhile, the corporation on Friday named 39 high-profile property tax defaulters who owe more than Rs 25 lakh. Together, they owe ₹24 crore to the civic body. Among defaulters, Martek Peripherals owes ₹3.3 crore to the civic body, City Tower Hotel ₹2 crore, TMB Anwar Ali ₹1.7 crore, Ranga Pillai ₹1.1 crore and P Usha ₹1 crore.

Pachaiyappas Trust Board owes ₹63 lakh, Meenakshi College for Women ₹53 lakh, Saravana Stores Gold Palace ₹47 lakh and Presidency Club ₹38 lakh.