Property tax collection highest in Teynampet
Chennai- The Teynampet zone of Chennai Corporation has contributed the highest share in entire property tax collection from 15 zones in the financial year 2012-13.
The zone has contributed 22 percent (Rs 103.84 crore) of total property tax collection of Rs 461.10 crore.
The hefty collection from this zone was not a surprise for civic officials. It is because this zone comprises of upmarket areas like Boat Club Road, Poes Garden, Harrington Road, Sterling Road and T Nagar which has large commercial and residential projects.
The second highest collection was from Adyar (65.27 crore), followed by Royapuram (64.26 crore). Few other top contributors are Kodambakkam (49.45 crore) and Anna Nagar (43.29 crore).
It is found that all newly added zones contributed less than 15 crore each. Only Ambattur contributed Rs 28.89 crore in the kitty. The lowest share was from Manali (Rs 3.86 crore), followed by Sholinganallur ( Rs 10.13 crore), Madhavaram ( Rs 11.40 crore), Valasaravakkam (Rs 11.47 crore) and Perungudi (Rs 11.59 crore).
As per experts, the government departments continued to be in the list of tax defaulters. Some residents pointed out that the collected property tax is not fully utilized for improvement of infrastructure facilities. It is mainly used to pay salaries of civic staff and arrears.
Chennai Corporation gets a major revenue from property tax collection. The civic body could not meet its target of Rs 500 crore. However, the corporation expected to collect Rs 780 crore from both property and professional taxes.
It is found that there is no uniform structure in property tax collection for old corporation limits and the newly-added areas. The corporation is planning to resolve this issue after the new areas get facilities on par with the other areas.
Sources claim that since property tax for commercial buildings is much higher, many people are using their residential properties for commercial purposes. This has resulted in less property tax collection as expected.
The collection from banks and online payments amounted just Rs 7.20 crore. This shows that residents still prefer to pay tax at corporate offices.
The corporation is expecting to collect more property tax in current fiscal as it has passed a resolution to increase property tax for buildings housing IT companies. The tax rates may increase between 50 percent to 200 percent. So far, the tax rates have not been implemented.
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