Chennai Corporation yet to collect Rs 400 cr tax dues
There are 3,000 mobile towers functioning in the city of which a total of Rs 125 crore tax has not been paid to the civic body.
Mayor R Priya and GCC Commissioner J Radhakrishnan chairing the GCC Council meeting on Tuesday
CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation standing committee chairman of accounts, K Dhanasekaran admitted that over Rs 400 crore tax is due and yet to be collected by the civic body. He urged the authorities to carry out a detailed study and ensure that the taxes are collected on time from defaulters.
When the audit committee reconciles the balance of the Corporation, it has come into notice that at least Rs 300 crore worth cheques issued to the city corporation has not been credited from the fiscal year 2007-2008. The Commissioner should take action to rectify the issue and an investigation should be carried out as to why the local body is failing to submit the cheques that are due within 90 days to the banks and reconcile them with the corporation’s balance, said Dhanasekeran.
Similarly another Rs 125 crore is due from the mobile cell phone towers. There are 3,000 mobile towers functioning in the city of which a total of Rs 125 crore tax has not been paid to the civic body.
Similarly, the accounts committee head explained that the Corporations across the State is yet to collect tax due for the library and at least Rs 239 crore remains unpaid across the state. Dhanasekaran also mentioned that 23,680 square feet of government land at Arcot Road-Vanniyar Street junction in Kodambakkam zone is encroached by private party and demanded the retrieval of land.
In addition, the civic body identified 3.11 lakh buildings through GIS of which 80 per cent of the buildings have not paid property tax to the corporation.
“Out of the 3.11 lakh buildings identified through GIS, the authorities surveyed only 60,000 buildings and only 30,000 buildings paid property taxes. If the civic body has collected tax dues from all the buildings the property tax for corporations would be increased by 20 percent, “ added Dhanasekaran.
He further stated that the Union government is yet to pay Rs 4.97 crore of subsidy during the previous government’s period and there have been no efforts taken by the authorities to collect the amount.
