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Five centres to collect property tax

Rajesh Nair

Around 39,300 houses were assessed: Oulgaret Municipality

PONDICHERRY: The Oulgaret Municipality has nearly completed the process of self-assessment of property tax and by February the civic body will open five centres to facilitate the payment of tax under the revised format.

Except the tsunami-affected villages in the stretch from Pillaichavadi to Kalapet along East Coast Road, the remaining houses have been covered. "Around 39,300 houses were assessed and only another 5,000 remain. Since the fishermen are to be relocated the assessment would be done after that," T. Diagarajan, Commissioner, told The Hindu.

The upcoming five centres at Jawahar Nagar, Lawspet, V.V.P Nagar, Kalapet and Saram would be computerised and would be inter-linked and connected to the main office.

People living in any area under the Municipality limits would have the option of paying the tax at any of these centres. A one-time yearly payment would be possible during April to September period or during October to November.

The Municipality launched the self-assessment process last year to include a large number of houses, which were not covered in the last 20 years.

Till now only 12,000 houses were in the tax network and out of this only around 3,000 were paying the property tax, according to the Commissioner.

Though the new tax structure, based on the distance from the main, second and other roads, is less compared to the earlier, the tax revenue is likely to go up.

"The tax revenue was between Rs. 80 lakh to Rs. 1 crore. Now we have more number of houses and tax will be less. But we expect to collect around Rs. 1.75 crore. The actual amount will be known only after the data entry was over," he said.

Awareness campaign

The Municipality will soon launch a mass awareness programme, including house-to-house campaign, to educate the public about the future mode of payment of tax through the centres.

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