Owing to economic slowdown, property tax penalty reduced to 0.5 per cent from 2 per cent.

According to a Chennai Corporation official, property tax defaulters could pay it at the reduced penalty rate till March 31, 2021, the last day of the current financial year. The civic body had issued an order in October to provide 5 per cent incentive for the property tax owners, who pay the tax before October 15, and 2 per cent penalty for persons failing to pay. The order was issued with a retrospective effect from October 2019.

“We expect owners with huge arrears to utilise the reduction. This will increase the tax collection in the present year as the collection has been affected due to the pandemic. More than 6 lakh persons could be benefitted by the move,” the official said.

Also, the Chennai Corporation will adjust the excess penalty amount already paid by the property owners during the tax collection for the next half year. It may be noted that the civic body collected Rs 63 crore from 92,000 bills between October 1 and October 15.

The official added that around 7 lakh property owners have property tax defaults to the civic body that amounts to the tune of whopping Rs 700 crore to Rs 800 crore. Meanwhile, the civic body had collected only Rs 255 crore in the present financial year till date. In the previous financial year, Chennai Corporation had collected more than Rs 970 crore.

“We had collected more than Rs 1,000 crore in 2018-19 and expected more than Rs 1,000 crore in 2019-20. But the collection was affected due to coronavirus outbreak. Usually, we collect a huge amount during the last week of March,” the official said.