Chennai Corporation plans to collect property tax over 50,000 buildings built on 'poramboke' land

CHENNAI: In an effort to boost the government offers, the Chennai Corporation plans to collect property tax on over 50,000 buildings that have been built on 'poramboke' land and do not fall under the revenue records, thereby making it government property.

After repeated requests at the corporation council meet, it has been decided that all the lands and commercial buildings that function without proper patta will be asked to cough up the appropriate property tax amount.

There are over 13 lakh property owners who pay tax under the Chennai Corporation limit and a tune of Rs 18,000 crores is collected as property tax from them every year.

The corporation has been implementing various methods to make the property tax defaulters pay the tax amount.

Following this, at the recent corporation council meet, it had come to light that at least 50,000 properties inside the corporation limit are operating on poramboke land and do not pay tax.

Levying this defaulted amount could really prove to be a shot in the arm for the administration.

As a follow up to the recommendation, corporation commissioner Radhakrishnan has said that as a first phase, 20,000 buildings operating on poramboke land in T.Nagar, Alandur, Manali and Madhavaram will be identified and their tax amount will be calculated.

Apart from this, many buildings in T Nagar that have gone unclaimed by legal heirs and have been encroached by strangers.

The corporation is expected to be initiating action against such properties that have no proper patta and other land documents.

Corporation officials said that they would soon set limits for buildings that operate without patta and default on property tax.