Corporation silent even as property tax amount rattles owners
It has been a harrowing time for many property owners ever since the revised property tax rates came into practice. While many with a tax hike of over 400 to 500 per cent have blamed the Corporation for resorting to faulty and random calculation, Corporation officials said the tax rates have been revised based on self-assessment of property owners.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-11-03 23:58 GMT
Chennai
There, however, has been no response from the Greater Chennai Corporation on this matter and it has failed to take steps to explain to the residents about a way out or provide a one-stop solution to this hike in property tax experienced by most residents. “When we approached a zonal office to correct the tax amounts, I was directed to approach the Regional Deputy Commissioner office or Ripon Buildings. Why cannot the zone level officials look into the matter and correct them?” one of the residents said.
M Mohan of Adyar, who was paying Rs 822 as half yearly property tax came in for a shock following the property tax revision. Contrary to the prescribed increase of 50 per cent, the tax for his property had been increased to Rs 3,945, which is an almost 400 per cent hike compared to what he was paying earlier.
However, he is not the only person who has been left baffled by this revision. In fact, many property owners have been shocked with their property skyrocketing by at least 400 to 500 per cent mainly owing to faulty self-assessment by the property owners themselves.
When DTNext examined a few revision notices including Mohan’s, it found that the residents, during self-assessment, had inadvertently mentioned the usage of building as non-residential (NR). “When I received the revision notice, I could not understand the abbreviations mentioned for which the full form was not given anywhere in the application. Hence, there are ample chances that I could have made mistake while filling it up,” Mohan said.
The basic mistakes by residents while filling the assessment forms has been on residential usage, which was classified as non-residential, owner occupancy and tenant occupancy. Another glaring mistake was the built-up area of the property.
Meanwhile, a few residents expressed discontent after they received a notice to pay pending tax dues based on the revised rates. “While Corporation officials claim that the new rates came into effect from April 2018, tax on some properties in T Nagar have been increased with effect from April 2017,” VS Jayaraman of T Nagar said.
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- Verify whether the built-up area is mentioned correctly
- If the built-up area mentioned is higher than the actual area, approach Chennai Corporation
- Compare basic street rate before and after general revision and check whether the difference is less than 50% (for residential buildings)
- Visit Chennai Corporation website and use property tax calculator feature
- Enter zone, division, street and built-up area details to automatically calculate the tax
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