With property tax revision on hold, Corpn to target long-time defaulters

According to a source from the Corporation, collection of current tax from the residents have been stopped to implement the changes announced by the government.

“We are told to concentrate on collecting tax defaults up to 2017-2018 financial year, as the current tax collection may be hit due to the government’s decision,” the official said.

The government had announced the general revision of property tax from 2018-2019 financial year, increasing the tax rates up to 50 per cent for residential buildings and 100 per cent for commercial buildings.

But there were widespread complaints from residents who were irked over the revision, alleging that the civic body failed to rectify anomalies that arose during the revision.

The civic body has already collected around Rs 720 crore as property tax till November 21 based on revised tax rates. “As the government directed us to adjust the difference amount from the tax that the residents had already paid, we could not collect current tax until our systems are modified as per the new order,” another official said.

The Corporation was eyeing a tax collection of Rs 1,300 crore as current tax (without arrears and defaults) going by the tax rates fixed during the general revision. In comparison, the tax potential as per older rate is only Rs 720 crore.

There are around four lakh tax defaulters in the city from whom the civic body should collect a whopping Rs 400 crore. If the government decides to roll back revision, residents who had already paid tax as per new rates will not have to pay tax for the next few years, as the excess amount they paid would be adjusted.

Expressing displeasure over the government’s decision of announcing and then withholding the revision, an official said that most of the citizens were accustomed to the new rates and many were paying up. “Only residents of Ambattur, Tiruvottiyur and Alandur zones were complaining about anomalies,” he claimed.

The official suggested that the government should concentrate on commercial buildings rather than going after residential buildings. “Proper collection of tax from commercial establishments can generate more revenue to the civic body,”the official said.

While withholding the general property tax revision across the State, the government has also constituted a committee to review representations received fromthe public.