Kerala - Kochi   

New numbers for houses

KOCHI: The re-numbering of the houses in the Kochi Corporation will begin on Tuesday. The divisions in the Corporation were earlier demarcated on the basis of electoral wards. In the official documents of the Corporation, there are only 50 divisions. However, the actual number is 71. All the houses in the Corporation will be re-numbered based on these 71 divisions and each house will get a new number. That will be the permanent number of individual houses in the Corporation.

The drive is part of the efforts of the civic body to reassess property tax, said Mercy Williams, Kochi Mayor. During the drive, unoccupied houses will be identified and the instances of use of residential houses for non-residential purposes will be tracked, she said.

Incidentally, a large number of houses in the prime residential areas like Panampilly Nagar have been converted into commercial spaces.

Several private firms are operating from the houses in these areas, earmarked as residential areas in the Corporation’s documents. This results in huge revenue loss to the civic body. The authorities had earlier announced that unauthorised conversion of residential spaces would be curbed. However, commercial units continued to function from there.

According to Revenue officials, nearly 2.5 lakh assessment numbers have been given for buildings in the city including individual houses, shops and commercial buildings.

The city administration collects around Rs. 22 crore annually as property tax and another Rs. 8 crore as professional tax. The identification and distinction of residential and commercial spaces and implementation of the revised tax regime is expected to increase the revenue of the civic body. The Corporation plans to complete the process by February 15.

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