Public display advertisement to attract Corporation charges

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation as well as other urban local bodies in the State will soon earn additional revenue as the government is in the process to frame rules to collect license fees for advertisements and regulate hoardings under Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act, which is on the anvil.

"Advertisements are being made on MTC buses, Metro trains, private vehicles, including auto-rickshaws and other public places, presently. Before hoardings were banned in the city by the High Court, we were collecting advertisement taxes. If we collect license charges for advertising from MTC buses, Metro trains and others, the civic body will earn an additional revenue of Rs 80 crore every year," a Chennai Corporation official said.

The official added that the new rules will regulate hoardings in public and private places instead of banning them. All the hoardings placed in the city are illegal. Apart from this, rules are being framed under the Act to allow the Greater Chennai Corporation to confiscate properties of the property tax defaulters.

In another move, the civic body has written to the State government seeking permission to levy property tax for the properties sans patta registration. When asked what if the residents claim ownership of the land based on property tax levy, the official clarified that the tax order will categorically say that levying property tax will not allow ownership of the land.

In another move to increase the tax revenue, the civic body has passed a resolution to appoint a private firm to reassess the property tax rates of underassessed buildings. As per data, the city has 2.79 lakh under assessed buildings and the civic body has estimated around Rs 200 crore additional revenue every year.

More than Rs 650 crore property tax collected:

Meanwhile, the Chennai Corporation has collected more than Rs 650 crore property tax for the first half current financial year. Up to Thursday morning, the civic body collected Rs 626 crore property tax and Rs 180 crore as professional tax. "As the tax would be collected till Friday midnight, we expect that the property tax collection would reach close to Rs 700 crore," an official said.

The official added that the civic body will collect total tax revenue close to Rs 1,000 crore through profession tax, trade license, company tax, rents from shopping complex and entertainment tax.