Incorrect assessment of the property dimensions have made many building owners to pay lesser amount as tax money. Soon this would be a thing of past.
It is revealed that beginning from 1st January building owners who had been paying lower taxes would be directed to pay the actual tax amount to the corporation of Chennai.
From the under-assessed properties in all the 15 zones present in Chennai, the civic body would collect more than Rs 200 crores as property tax. Point to be noted is many building owners (residential and commercial) have evaded tax payment to the Chennai Corporation by illegitimate presentation of their property data.
On Tuesday, 3rd September, a meeting took place on GIS for property tax assessment and utility mapping. It was brought out that the Chennai Corporation commissioner, Mr. Prakash, had set a deadline of December for door-to-door survey of properties.
It must be taken into account that the identification of all building owners who have been paying lower taxes by under-assessing their properties has been the most challenging aspect of revenue generation for the civic body in the last few decades. In the Chennai city, the work on compilation of GIS data has been completed but because of the non-cooperation of the residents the door-to-door survey of the properties couldn’t be carried out by the civic body officials.
An employee belonging to the Chennai Corporation spoke his heart out. He said that the farmhouses present in the added areas have not been assessed by the team. He mentioned that the works in these farm houses do not allow the team to enter the premises and they do not give the correct information. The employee was also unhappy about the tenants who fail to give information to the officials of the corporation. It is known that these tenants constitute 49% of the residents of Chennai.