CHENNAI: Properties identified to be underassessed with GIS mapping should be reassessed for property and professional tax by a third party. The process must be completed by March 2023, a third party consultant who was taken on board to help the city corporation increase its own source revenue, has recommended. The recommendations were submitted before the council on Tuesday.
Under the Chennai City Partnership Programme, the third party consultant had put forth a series of recommendations to increase the civic body’s revenue collection from property tax, professional tax, company tax and trade license, etc., over the next five years.
To improve collection of property tax, the main source of revenue for the corporation, the consultant has recommended that discrepancies in classification of buildings between the city and TANGEDCO be sorted out. Some buildings that have commercial service connections may have been registered under the residential category. By classifying them as non-residential structures, the property tax can be increased.
The consultant also suggested that steps should be taken to levy property tax for buildings which have mobile towers, by October 2022. Apart from this, the corporation should also focus on collecting property tax arrears between May and July every year. As for professional tax, data from the Registrar of companies may be used to identify defaulters by November 2022.