Property tax in Chennai goes through the roof
R Santhanababu of MMDA, Mathur in north Chennai was shocked to see his property tax revision notice. His tax had gone up by nine times — from Rs 154 to Rs 1,340. In South Chennai, S N Vijayagopal, a resident of Karikalan Street in Adambakkam received a notice asking him to pay Rs 4,570, five times the usual amount. Complaints from residents about sudden hike in property tax have been pouring in at the revenue department of Greater Chennai Corporation with numbers reaching 1,000 in one month. Residents have appealed to the civic body seeking an explanation on the new rates. Many are confused about the method of calculation. Those who had declared their properties in the self-assessment forms said they expected a 50% hike as promised. The property tax was revised after a Madras high court order in July and the government capped the hike to 50% for residential buildings and 100% for commercial buildings. “But property taxes have almost tripled. We were neither given an explanation nor did we have a proper grievance redressal mechanism,” said R Govindaraj of Exnora Greater Chennai. Anand Laxman, a resident of T Nagar, said he was not provided with any explanation for the rise. “The corporation’s coffers are dry but it is unfair to collect revenue from just one tax. The process should be gradual,” he said. The civic body currently collects Rs 720cr as property tax and this might go up to Rs 1,200cr after the revised amount is collected. With a hike in property tax, water tax has also gone up. Water tax is calculated as 7% of total property tax.
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