Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
Staff Reporter
An eyesore: A typical scene of the poor civic ambience at Chettiapanoor.
VANIYAMBADI: Even though there is an ample source for revenue for Chettiapanoor near Vaniyambadi, the panchayat is not able to to realise it. A number of educational institutions are located in the village panchayat. But these institutions, on some pretext or the other, refuse to pay up the property tax, which has impeded the overall development of the Chettiapanoor. Its president D. Annamalai, talking to The Hindu, said that this was one of the biggest panchayats under the Alan gayam union. There were 10 educational institutions within its limit. This included four matriculation schools, one engineering college, one industrial training institute, one polytechnic, one arts college and two teachers training institutes. The property tax fixed for a square feet was 55 paise, he said adding that the rate was fixed by the Department of Rural Development in 1994. The institutions had not paid the tax for more than a decade. Arrears for property tax alone had crossed Rs. 1 crore. Mr. Annamalai said that taking cognisance of the situation, the panchayat board had served three demand notices on the educational institutions in the last four months. But the educational institutions, which had a union, did not respond. The institutions here had been evading the tax on the pretext that they were all charitable trusts. In fact, the issue had been brought to the notice of the District Collector Dharmendra Pratap Yadav. The Collector had sent letters, and even arranged for a meeting of correspondents of these educational institutions. In the meeting, the correspondents agreed to pay the tax from the current financial year in principle. But after that there had been no development. The president said that there was a loophole in the Tamil Nadu Village Panchayat (Assessment and Collection of Taxes) Rules 1999. The educational institutions here used this to their advantage. The management of one of the educational institutions, in a written reply to the panchayat board, said that as per the Section 15 C of the Tamil Nadu Village Panchayat Rules 1999, “the buildings used for educational purpose are exempted from property tax.” Mr. Annamalai, on the other hand, said that as per the rules all education institutions, were liable to pay up property tax. Further, the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1994 said that all buildings were liable for levy of property tax at village panchayats. He said that the panchayat was ready to negotiate the rate, as the minimum rate fixed for a 100 square feet area was Rs.25, and the maximum slab Rs.55. “If the institutions come forward for talks, the panchayat board is ready to negotiate within these fixed slabs.” Moreover, Chettiapanoor was close to the Vaniyambadi. A lot of people had begun to migrate to the area, and hence there was an urgent need to provide basic amenities. Also, the number of houses in the last six years had increased four-fold. The funds were not sufficient for even regular maintenance. Moreover, if the panchayat was able to collect the tax from these institutions, the Government would help the panchayat with Property Tax Match Grant, he added.
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