Record haul as corporation collects 650 crore property tax
Sunday, 26 March 2017 00:00
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The Times of India 26.03.2017 Record haul as corporation collects 650 crore property tax
CHENNAI: With over Rs 650 crore earned so far, Greater Chennai Corporation has netted a record total in property tax collection for the fiscal 2016-17.
According to revenue department
officials of the civic body, the city's 11.70 lakh assessees have
contributed a little over Rs 654 crore so far, enabling the corporation
to surpass its property tax collection target for the year. The sum
collected so far also represents an increase of around Rs 70 crore from the last year.
Together with professional tax
revenue, which crossed the Rs 240-crore mark, the collection is a
significant increase in revenue generated by the local body. The
professional tax collected so far is an increase of over 10% from the
last year's figures. And with five more days to go before the end of the
financial year, officials expect to add on to these numbers by a
sizeable margin. "We expect to collect another Rs 20-25 crore property
tax. The last two days are frantic usually because assessees turn up in
huge numbers to pay their dues," said an official.
Despite a setback during cyclone Vardah, officials said they "worked
hard", although there was staff shortage, to meet the target of Rs 650
crore set in the local body's budget document. Meanwhile, the central
government's move to demonetise high value currencies in November 2016
also came as a blessing in disguise for the corporation.
"In a two-day period within the first week of demonetisation, we
collected over Rs 25 crore property tax. We were able to clear a
significant portion of the arrears as well within 15 days (of the
announcement)," an official said.
Unlike the previous year, revenue officials also steered clear of
controversies when attempting to get large sum defaulters to pay up.
Last year, officials involved transgender people who played drums or
dumped garbage at the doorstep of business or residence to call upon
attention to the defaulter. These measures proved unpopular and
attracted criticism for the local body. "We served them with notices and
judiciously followed up all cases we could," a senior official said.
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Chennai Corpn. makes no changes to property tax rates
Thursday, 23 March 2017 11:51
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The Hindu 23.03.2017 Chennai Corpn. makes no changes to property tax rates
More spending on stormwater drains
The Chennai Corporation Special Officer has passed the budget for
2017-2018 without making any new announcements on infrastructure
development and welfare projects. The property tax rates will remain
unchanged. The civic body has not changed the tax rates since 1998. A
senior official of the Corporation said the budget was passed on March
14. “We have not released the information on welfare measures because of
the model code of conduct,” said an official. According to budget estimates, the civic body is expected to spend more on stormwater drains in 2017-2018. Chennai
Corporation will receive a loan amount of more than Rs. 2,000 crore
from various funding agencies, including the World Bank. The interest
payment on loans is also expected to increase.
Tax evaders earn garbage dump, pay up 90% of dues
Monday, 20 March 2017 00:00
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The Times of India 20.03.2017 Tax evaders earn garbage dump, pay up 90% of duesPadmini Sivarajah | TNN | Updated: Mar 20, 2017, 07.25 AM IST
MADURAI: The Ramanathapuram municipality has successfully collected
its long pending tax dues from about 20 people by resorting to a novel
method - keeping overflowing garbage dumps
in front of the houses or shops of those evading tax dues. What has
apparently helped the municipality have its way is the absence of an
elected council whose members usually intervene for the tax evaders, mostly affluent people.
The authorities of this first-grade municipality
with a population of 61, 440 spread over 6.33 sqkm across 33 wards had
managed to collect '1.40 crore out of the '1.50 crore tax dues pending
for the past five years. The town has a literacy rate of 93.07%.
Municipality sources said that the outstanding dues worked out to about
'1.5 crores mainly by way of property tax pending for about five years
and other taxes for seven years.
Those who paid their taxes on time were mostly the economically weaker
sections and they very rarely received notices. On the other hand, some
affluent people who had some political clout had been evading tax
payment for the past five years.
"We kept on issuing notices, but they were ignored. If we sent them
notices warning of penal action, we would get phone calls from the
chairman or the councillors asking us to refrain from further action,''
the sources said. Shantha (named changed) of Keeraikara Street
in the municipality said that she had at first felt angry when the
overflowing bin suddenly appeared in their street, but when workers told
her that it was to collect long-pending dues she had agreed to put up
with it.
Municipality commissioner A Abdul Rashid
assumed office in September 2016 and was presented with a long files of
pending dues. With the period of the council coming to an end the very
next month, it was left to the commissioner, who also became the
municipality's special officer, to collect the dues. Notices were issued
and when there was no sign of the pending dues filling the coffers, the
municipality resorted to placing garbage bins which were not emptied
regularly.
"The bigwigs came and shouted at us and told us to remove it
immediately. But they were politely informed that they would have to pay
the dues if the bins had to be emptied. After some time, they started
paying up,'' said a municipality worker. "The absence of a council and
its members is one reason why collecting the dues has become easy,
because their presence had only helped these evaders for the past five
years,'' he said.
When contacted, commissioner Rashid said that he was confident of
collecting 98% of the tax dues by the March 31 deadline. Till date '1.40
crore out of the pending '1.50 crore has been collected by the
municipality.
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