Property tax fire: Revision only for wrongly assessed properties, says GCC; mulls special camps

CHENNAI: Facing a torrent of complaints of steep hike in property tax assessments, which is rapidly becoming a political issue, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Wednesday clarified it was not a general increase in tax, but only revised amounts only for residential and commercial properties that were incorrectly or under-assessed.

According to GCC Commissioner GS Sameeran, discrepancies in property areas were identified using GIS mapping, satellite data, government databases, and self-declarations submitted by property owners.

"The GIS survey was launched following the collection of self-declaration data in 2018. The data thus gathered was cross-verified with existing GCC records. According to that, around 3.5 lakh property owners have not been paying tax for the whole built-up area," said a corporation official.

The civic body advised property owners with objections to the revised assessment to file an appeal within 15 days of receiving the notice, assuring that they would be resolved within 30 days. "They can file an appeal with the concerned Regional Deputy Commissioner (RDC) or hand over their objection letters at zonal offices. Instructions have been issued to assessors to collect the forms and forward them to the RDC," the official said.

"If a large number of petitions are received, the RDC will organise special camps. Also, operators at the 1913 helpline have been instructed to provide accurate information to citizens calling with inquiries."

Meanwhile, noting that the civic body had increased property tax rate two years ago, Deputy Mayor Magesh Kumar said the DMK-run council decided to defer the scheduled annual increase this time “to avoid burdening the public”.

“During last month’s council meeting, we had asked the Commissioner to seek a special fund of Rs 2,000 crore from the government instead of implementing the hike. But the Commissioner executed this without informing us,” he alleged.

In recent years, the civic body has received numerous complaints of discrepancies in tax payments between individuals owning properties of similar size. The present exercise would help collect accurate tax owed by property owners, said an official, adding that the reassessment exercise would rectify tax disparities among property owners and is expected to generate revenue of Rs 170 crore annually.