CHENNAI: Property owners across the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) were in for a major shock after receiving revised property tax demands that are three to four times higher than what they paid in the first half of the last financial year.
With scores of people fuming over the massive hike, the corporation said the revision was based on self-declaration of deviations and also after a drone-based GIS survey that revealed discrepancies in declared extent of the property and real spread.
The civic body has around 14 lakh registered property tax assessees across its 15 zones.
One of them, Radhika Sunder Raj of Anna Nagar, said her property tax has risen from Rs 5,000 in the first half of 2025-26 to Rs 28,000 this year. “Without any prior information, the GCC has increased our property tax to Rs 28,000. Such a steep hike is unreasonable and unacceptable,” she said.
A senior GCC official said the revisions followed discrepancies identified in property assessments. During a self-declaration exercise in 2018, around 1.5 lakh domestic property owners had declared deviations in land value assessments, while deviations had subsequently been found in around 3 lakh commercial and non-commercial buildings, the official said.
The revision in property tax was kept on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic and has resumed now, said the official, adding that the revised assessment has been given effect from the second half of 2025-26, irrespective of when the deviation occurred, to limit the financial burden on property owners.
The corporation said owners who have objections to the revised assessment can approach the Regional Deputy Commissioner concerned, along with supporting documents, within 15 days of receiving the revised demand, and assured that genuine grievances would be resolved within a month.
Sarbajaya Das, chairperson, Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance, said the GCC had outsourced the property tax revision exercise to a private agency, which conducted a citywide drone-based GIS survey in 2024.
“Reassessments are being implemented based on discrepancies found between the GIS survey and actual tax payments. Initially, commercial properties were taken up and reassessments for around 16,000 commercial buildings are still under way,” she said.
While the GCC plans to extend the reassessment exercise to domestic properties, the issue was not discussed during the finance committee meeting in July, Das said. “The matter will be discussed in this month's meeting in view of the revision implemented for the first half of the current financial year,” she added.
Residents' associations, however, questioned the retrospective nature of the revisions and the lack of prior communication.
Sandhiya Vedullapalli of the Federation of Anna Nagar Residents’ Associations (FOARA) said sudden increases ranging from 10% to more than 300% were unacceptable.
“The GCC must clarify the methodology used for the calculations, justify the retrospective effective date, and reconsider this increase in tax. Taxpayers should not be made to bear the burden of administrative lapses,” she said.
TK Shanmugam, president of the Federation of North Chennai Residents Welfare Association (FNCRWA), said the revisions would hit low-income households and small-scale leather industries in North Chennai.
“How can such an important measure be implemented without discussion in the council meeting? The revised property tax will also have a ripple effect on Metro Water tax payments,” he said.
Repeated attempts to contact Chennai Mayor R Priya and Deputy Mayor Mageshkumar for their comments were unsuccessful.