Date:10/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/10/stories/2006081013750400.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Drive to collect tax dues from flats

Special Correspondent

Minister says department hopes to collect Rs.20 crores from flat owners

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Revenue Department has launched a four-month drive to get all the housing flats in the State assessed for building tax and collect from the flat owners/builders the amounts due to the Government.

At a press conference here on Wednesday, Revenue Minister K. P. Rajendran said his department hoped to collect at least Rs.20 crores from the flat owners/builders thus during the current financial year.

Only 337 housing flats in the State had been assessed and taxed so far, while the actual number of flats would definitely be several times more than that.

He admitted that his department had left this source of revenue untapped in the past. An association of leading builders itself had brought this matter to his notice.

According to the association, the Government would get more than Rs.14 crores if all the flats were assessed and taxed. Official estimates done subsequently had shown that the amount would exceed Rs.20 crores, the Minister said.

"In Thiruvananthapuram district, for instance, only seven flats had been assessed. In a small area such as Vazhuthacaud in the capital city itself, fully occupied flats number several times more than that," Mr. Rajendran said.

In the districts of Kottayam, Alappuzha, Idukki, Malappuram, Wayanad and Kasargode, the officials had so far made no assessments at all. It was almost as if such a Government levy did not exist.

He said he had instructed the district collectors to constitute in each district a special team of officials to complete the tax assessment exercise within the next four months.

A deputy collector would monitor the work of this special team.

Mr. Rajendran said his department would identify similar unattended areas of untapped revenue and try to mobilise the maximum possible resources for the Government.

Levies from Government land leased to individuals and institutions were one such area. "Several lessees hold with them more Government land than they actually require. Some of the leased lands are in prime locations. I see even the possibility of recovering from them the excess land under lease to them so that the Government could put the plots to productive use," he said.