Chennai corp adopts new method for property tax collection
Chennai – If you are there in tax defaulters’ list, then very soon a town crier may enter your locality and announce the whole world about your tax secrets.
Traditionally town crier or bellman were the chief means of news communication. They were employed to make public pronouncements as required by the court and also public announcements in the streets.
Since Chennai Corporation is facing many challenges related to property tax, they arrived at implementing this traditional method. This step to employ town cries will make aware residents of their legal obligations and motivate tax defaulters to pay their tax soon.
According to a senior Corporation official, so far the civic body has collected property tax (Rs 351 crore till February end ) from 15 zones of the Chennai city. It is expected that this new awareness creation programme may help in achieving the target (Rs 500 crore) of the civic body.
The Chennai revenue department faces major problem of manpower. This is one among the infinite issues. The total tax collectors for 426 sq km of the city are less than 250.
The handbooks have been handed over to tax collectors. Now they have to personally visit each home and commercial developments to collect dues. Due to staff shortage, the number of assessees handled by a single tax collector varies between 3,000 to 20,000.
It was also found that there were delays in updating data related to collection of property tax. Few days back, the hand handled machines caused severe problems in tax collection services.
Although the tax payment service is made online on the website, very few assessees (10 percent ) take advantage of this. This online facility is made available for all 15 zones which include nearly 10.71 lakh assessees. This number also embraces many NRIs who own their properties in Chennai and other zones.
Some assessees complain about the problems related to prints of receipts after online payments.
It is believed that these town criers will clear all the obstacles of Chennai Corporation for achieving their targets.
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Chennai, Chennai Corporation, properties in Chennai, Property tax defaulters, Property tax in Chennai, Town criers
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