Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Plan to widen tax net

By S. Ganesan

TIRUCHI, SEPT.13 . Following the buoyant trend in tax collection in recent months, Tiruchi Corporation authorities are now exploring ways to widen the tax net.

Tax compliance has improved significantly in the recent past, especially after the introduction of online system of tax collection. The Corporation has netted about Rs.8.40 crores in taxes and non-tax heads so far this fiscal. Out of this, Rs.8.20 crores was mopped up in August alone, a record of sorts. The total demand under property and water taxes for the half-yearly period was about Rs.12 crores.

The online system has succeeded in bringing the city residents to pay their taxes voluntarily through banks and Corporation service centres. Previously, the manual collection through the bill collectors has invariably resulted in poor collection and accumulation of arrears. "Residents now queue up in the banks and service centres to pay taxes just as they would for remitting their electricity and telephone bills," points out a senior official.

The civic body has also managed to tap other tax sources also this year. For instance, Rs.1.55 crores of professional tax arrears due from the Golden Rock Railway Workshop employees has also been realised following a recent court directive in favour of the Corporation. About Rs.1.20 crore of the Corporation's share in stamp-duties from the Registration Department and Rs.67 lakhs of its share in entertainment tax due from the Commercial Taxes Department have also been realised, thanks to the persistent efforts of the civic officials.

The authorities are now seeking to sustain the trend and also widen the tax net. "We are adopting a multi-pronged strategy for improving collection of levies," explains a senior official. The Corporation is all set to launch a special drive against buildings, which have remained unassessed for property tax. An enumeration of new buildings for which building plan approvals were issued within the past five years has indicated that there were over 1,500 properties, which have not been assessed for proper taxes so far, as the owners were yet to apply for the same on completion of the construction work. Several other residents have gone in for expansion of their buildings and had not got the extended floor space assessed for tax. For instance, many have constructed additional floors with only the original structure being assessed for tax.

Steps are now afoot to ensure that no building was left unassessed fully. However, the civic body has decided to adopt a persuasive approach initially by asking owners of such properties to come forward voluntarily to get their buildings assessed. The Corporation Commissioner, Mr.Harmander Singh, has appealed to owners of such buildings to apply for getting their properties assessed before the September 30. The authorities are planning a crackdown after the deadline and residents who fail to get their properties assessed for tax could face penal action.

Simultaneously, the Corporation is also focussing on conversion of taxation categories from "domestic" to "commercial" in required cases. Officials point out that several residents have converted their properties into commercial space though they were still being taxed under the domestic category, both for property and water taxes, much less than the rates for commercial category. An enumeration is planned to identify such cases.

The Corporation has also initiated the process of exploring the feasibility of setting up a Lok Adalat for recovering huge arrears in property taxes, running into several crores, due to litigation for the past several years. The civic body has planned to get in touch with the district judiciary through its Taxation and Appeals Tribunal to nominate a few judicial officers for conducting the exercise.

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