Property tax: Corporation must collect 100 crore to meet target in March

The civic body is busy tracking the large-scale defaulters to ensure that they remitted the dues on property tax – one of the key revenue sources for the corporation. 

So far, it has collected Rs 650 crore and is hoping that by the end of this month, the coffers would fill up with an additional Rs 100 crore, touching Rs 750 crore as calculated in the revised budget estimate of 2017-18. 

Incidentally, the original budget estimate for 2017-18 was Rs 800 crore, which was brought down by Rs 50 crore in the revised estimate. 

“We are targeting the largescale defaulters by naming and shaming them in public to pay their dues,” said the official, adding that the accumulation of the dues is because of the protracted court cases that are going on. 

For 2018-19, the city corporation is hoping to increase its property tax revenue to Rs 1,200 crore. On Tuesday, the corporation had named and shamed a star hotel in the city, which owes the civic body close to Rs 25 crore as property tax. 

“Initially, the hotel had approached the Tax Appellate Tribunal (TAT), which had ruled in their favour. But recently, the Madras High Court ruled in the corporation’s favour, directing the hotel to pay 50 per cent of the dues, even if they are filing a petition for reassessment,” said an official. 

To plug in the leaks in the property tax revenue inflow, the corporation is undertaking GIS survey to identify defaulters among other measures.

“Door-to-door survey of 20 zones in five wards is completed, while drone survey has been completed for five zones: Madhavaram (Zone 3), Tondiarpet (Zone 4), Thiru-ViKa Nagar (Zone 6), Ambattur (Zone 7) and Anna Nagar (Zone 8). We are waiting for the footage to be returned by the Ministry of Defence, which is examining it for sensitive information,” said the official.