Date:01/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/01/stories/2008080152520300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Tirupur Corporation move to increase Property Tax opposed

Special Correspondent

TIRUPUR: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) staged a walkout, the Communist Party of India (CPI) staged a sit-in and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) councillors wore black masks at the Tirupur Corporation Council’s meeting on Thursday to show their opposition to the civic body’s move to increase Property Tax.

As soon as the council was called to order at the Urgent Meeting, Leader of the Opposition in the Council and former AIADMK legislator C. Sivasamy said the rates of increase proposed were unprecedented.

Communist Party of India member P.R. Natarajan said that out of the 80,000 assessments in Tirupur, 60,000 were residential. He and Communist Party of India (Marxist) member G. Easwaramurthy appealed to the Mayor not to increase the tax.

The Mayor, K. Selvaraj, made out a strong case for the tax increase by citing various development works that the Corporation had to carry out.

In his address at the meeting, he also explained that the Government had only fixed the maximum increase at 25 per cent for residential, 100 per cent for industrial and 150 per cent for commercial buildings.