Corpn open over weekend to achieve property tax target of Rs 1,200 cr

“As the financial year ends on Sunday, we will keep our offices open on this weekend. Property owners can pay their taxes at our offices or online,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

According to the official, the civic body has collected around Rs 920 crore as property tax till March 29 though it had fixed a target of Rs 1,200 crore.

“Even though we were tied up in rationalisation and revision of the property tax works, we have crossed Rs 900 crore for the first time. During the 2018-2019 financial year, we have collected only Rs 721 crore,” another official said.

The official also admitted that they might not be able to reach the Rs 1,200-crore mark in just two days, but they expect to collect Rs 950 crore. “After revision works, we are now involved in election work for the past month,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the official requested the property owners, who have been waiting for their appeals to be heard, to pay the property tax based on the old tax and pay the difference after the appeals are disposed of. It is learnt that the civic body is yet to dispose of more than 5,000 appeals out of nearly 10,000 appeals received from the public.

“We took several actions against commercial establishments with high defaults. But we are going easy on residential buildings. We will continue such action to collect default,” the official said.

Presently, the Chennai Corporation is not levying a penalty against defaulters but is mulling to impose a penalty against the persons failing to pay before the 15th day of every half year.