Residents frown as water tax goes up with property tax

The Metro Water has already begun to send alerts to residents over SMS explaining the revision of water tax in the city. “The messages state that the board had increased the water tax retrospectively from the date when the property tax hike was brought into effect, which is April 2018. The board has also cautioned that non-payment of water and sewerage tax would entail disconnection of water supply,” said V S Jayaramanof T Nagar Residents’ WelfareAssociation.

A Metro Water Area Engineer said that as per norms, water and sewerage tax would be collected in correspondence with the property tax rates fixed by the Chennai Corporation. “Metro water collects seven per cent amount of property tax rate annually. Residents have to pay half of this in the first half year and the remaining half in the next half year. Now, we will collect seven per cent amount in proportion to the property tax,” the engineer said. Though this proportionate hike is seemingly expected, residents pointed out that there were several appeals pertaining to property tax hike and urged the Metro Water board to postpone the water tax hike till the alleged anomalies in property tax revision were sorted. “Many residents are yet to receive the demand notice regarding the property tax hike from the city Corporation. Metro Water board should wait till the appeals are heard of and demand notices served,” Jayaraman contended.

Meanwhile, a Chennai Corporation official said that the civic body has less than 10,000 property tax revision notices that were to be distributed and added: “The appeal petitions are being disposed of to ensure maximum tax collection.”