Date:01/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070159610400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

No revision of property tax

A.Srivathsan and Kannal Achuthan

CHENNAI: There will be no revision of property tax in Chennai.

Mayor M.Subramanian told The Hindu on Monday that this year the Chennai Corporation would not undertake any review of property tax.

However, he made it clear that all large commercial and mixed commercial establishments would be checked for underassessment.

This puts to rest all doubts about upward revision of property tax that arose in the light of the Government Order that was issued in November 2007.

The GO instructed local bodies to look at a possible revision of tax with effect from April 1, 2008. This order issued uniform guidelines for all local bodies to follow. It was stipulated that a maximum of 25 per cent upward revision for residential, 150 per cent for commercial and 100 for industrial properties could be adopted.

A revised GO was issued on June 23 and the uniform guidelines have been done away with. Instead, each local body could now devise their own extent of property tax revision based on their respective revenue and expenditure. However the maximum limit on upward revision, as prescribed earlier, stays.

Corporations such as Coimbatore recently implemented the upward revision of property tax and it was expected that Chennai would follow suit. This has been now ruled out .The property tax in Chennai was last revised in 1998 and was due to be revised in 2003.