Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Over a lakh buildings covered under fresh tax assessment

File pHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

The property tax book of Coimbatore Corporation. —

COIMBATORE: Over a lakh buildings in the city have been covered so far under the Coimbatore Corporation’s exercise of fresh assessment for Property Tax. The tax is being reworked on the basis of the new rates that came into effect on April 1.

As many as 36 groups of Corporation officials, staff and student volunteers are taking fresh measurement of buildings in the four zones of the city.

A revenue department official said on Wednesday that as against 2,09,980 buildings in the city, 1,18,500 had been assessed for tax in the drive.

The re-assessment of old buildings was being done to ensure due revenue to the Corporation, the official said. Many additional structures that had not been assessed were being brought into the tax net now.

At the same time, new houses were also being assessed for tax.

The Corporation wanted to complete the exercise by July 31. But, the task was enormous. It, however, would be completed in another 15 days, Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) R. Prabhakaran said.

There were, however, problems in entering all the assessments in the Corporation’s database. Only 500 of these were being entered in the database owing to problems with the server. These were being looked into, he said.

The official denied charges of irregularities in assessment, such as demanding money in exchange for fixing a lower tax.

Former councillor and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam State Executive Committee member M. Krishnaswamy has alleged that such demands were being made very openly.

In a letter to Secretary of Municipal Administration and Water Supply K. Deenabandhu, Mr. Krishnaswamy accused members of some parties and officials of being involved in these irregularities.

Some buildings were being allowed to evade huge taxes, he alleged. The former councillor called for steps to ensure transparency in tax assessment.

Denying these charges, the revenue official said whenever even minor complaints of problems in assessment were brought to the Corporation’s notice, steps were taken immediately to set things right.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Special vehicles for students with physical disability
Cultural contest for children
Over a lakh buildings covered under fresh tax assessment
Residents duped by ‘official’
‘Take curative measures to set right neglect faced by agri sector’
‘Poverty alone not a criterion for part-time jobs’
Spotlight on agriculture at Collectors’ meeting
Industries hit by power cuts
Job fair for women
Provide education to rural youth: Governor
Memories of last 50 years scripted in gold
Fine imposed for killing deer
Tax assessment: over one lakh buildings covered
In Coimbatore Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu