Corporation will introduce in April self-assessment of property tax
PUNITIVE MEASURE: A worker disconnects on Friday drinking water supply line of a building that owes tax arrears to the civic body COIMBATORE: The Corporation will introduce in April self-assessment of property tax for new buildings, extensions in old ones and also the houses in the unapproved layouts that are to be tapped for tax revenue, according to Mayor R. Venkatachalam.
This is to step up revenue collection and overcome bottlenecks to it that now plaque the Corporation in the form of inadequate manpower for survey and assessment.
The Corporation aims to bring about a culture of compliance through self-assessment. Corporation sources say that this can help in even avoiding charges of corruption during assessment. The concept is part of the e-governance that the Corporation embarked upon a few years ago. The assessment details can be provided on-line for fixing the property tax.
The self-assessment will, however, have a monitoring mechanism to prevent under-assessment. Officials will check for the veracity of the details such as the size of the buildings that are provided by the owners.
The Corporation is not happy with its current collection as it has crossed only the halfway mark. It has stepped up the drive to collect both arrears and the amount due for this year.
Teams led by the Assistant Commissioners of four zones are on a door-to-door drive in a top down approach, instead of targeting the small amount defaulters first for water line disconnection.
"We are starting with the highest defaulter this time," says Mr. Venkatachalam. "After the budget on March 14, the collection will be speeded up." The Corporation has already started disconnecting waterlines of defaulters.
The Corporation suffers sluggish collection even as substantial sums are locked in litigation. Added to this is the poor collection from Government-owned buildings in the city. The overall collection is around 60 per cent of the total demand of Rs. 70.86 crore. It is said to be far from satisfactory when the Corporation needs to prove to the Central and State Governments and also funding agencies that it is capable of high tax collection.
Property tax from 1.99-lakh assessees and water charges from 1.1-lakh connections are considered the main revenue sources that are supposed to aid the Corporation in providing basic amenities such as roads, drainage, streetlights and drinking water.
The Corporation itself has said that it needs to have enough credibility in terms of revenue mobilisation as this is a major condition laid by the Governments for providing grants. For the current fiscal, the arrears collection stood early this week at 54 per cent. Against a target of over Rs. 28.29 crore, the collection was Rs. 15.23 crore. While the demand for the current financial year is Rs. 42.56 crore, the collection was Rs. 25.57 crore. It stands around 60 per cent.
A substantial sum of Rs. 13.49 crore in property tax is locked in litigation. Of this, Rs. 10.29 crore is arrears and Rs. 3.19 is the current year demand. No water charge is under litigation.
But the arrear from the Government buildings in property tax is over Rs.2 crore, out of the target arrear collection of Rs. 2.75 crore. The current year's collection is around Rs. 45 lakh as against the target of Rs. 1.38 crore. As for water charges, the Government buildings still owe Rs. 35 lakh in arrears and Rs. 16 lakh for the current year alone. These are against the collection targets of Rs. 58.91 lakh and Rs. 52.88 lakh respectively.
