The Chennai Corporation has distributed property tax self-declaration applications to just 6.50 lakh out of 12.20 lakh assessees in the city till August 20. In turn, the civic body has received only 1.80 lakh filled-in forms from the assessees.
The self-declaration forms include both manual as well as online versions. The last date for submitting the forms, to facilitate fixing of the new property tax, is August 31. The State government, through a Government Order, had announced revision of property tax, ranging from 10% to 50% for residential, and 100% for commercial assessees, in July this year. The revised property tax would take effect for the first half-year period of April-September 2018.
Special camps
A senior official of the Chennai Corporation said the Revenue department officials, in order to help the residents, have been visiting their localities and distributing self-declaration forms, besides organising special camps in all the 15 zones.
While 6.50 lakh forms have been distributed, the civic body is running against time to distribute the remaining 5.70 lakh forms to the residents. Though the civic body has made the self-declaration forms available online, through the Chennai Corporation website, only 30,000 residents have downloaded them, the official added.
Regarding the residents in extended areas complaining of paying higher property tax compared to those residing in core areas, the Corporation official said new basic street rates were yet to be worked out, but the rate of increase of property tax in extended areas would be in the range of 10% as per the reduced guideline value. Similarly, the core areas would see the property tax rising in the range of 30% to 50%. The official said in the new revision, the imbalances in the property tax would be reduced.
The corporation official said the Rationalisation Committee had already given a set of guidelines for fixing the revised property tax rates.