The Hindu        10.06.2013

Irregularities found in property tax assessment

The Erode Corporation has unearthed large-scale irregularities in the property tax assessment carried out in a few parts of the town and launched a detailed probe. It has also suspended four bill collectors for the alleged irregularities.

The civic body found violation of norms in the assessment carried out for more than 200 new properties that came up in Surampatty and Kasipalayam areas during the annual auditing.

It was said that the bill collectors in these areas fixed a tax for the properties arbitrarily without consulting the senior officials and taking their approval for the assessment. Sources alleged that low amount of tax was fixed for a number of new properties that came up in the last few months. A high amount of tax was imposed for some of the properties.

The bill collectors had also issued assessment orders to the owners of the new buildings without getting the approval and signature from the assistant commissioners of the respective zones.

In the preliminary inquiry carried out by the civic body, officials confirmed the irregularities committed by the bill collectors and submitted a detailed report to Corporation Commissioner M. Vijayalakshmi. Based on the report, the civic body placed four bill collectors - Gurusamy, Subramani, Krishnan and Ramasamy – under suspension. “We have also initiated a departmental inquiry,” a senior official here said.

Teams comprising senior officials were also sent to more than 200 properties and a fresh assessment was carried out. The civic body had also initiated steps to re-assess the new buildings that came in Erode town limits in the recent years.

The Hindu                23.05.2013

Civic body asks government departments to pay up

Special Correspondent

With nearly Rs. 9 crore of property tax due from government agencies, for properties owned by various departments in the city, the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has taken steps to recover the current and arrears due from them.

On Tuesday, Corporation Commissioner V.P. Thandapani convened a meeting of officers of various State and union government departments that owe money to the civic body to impress upon them to pay up quickly.

Apart from Rs. 6 crore of current demand, Rs. 3 crore of arrears in tax was due from the Union and State government departments in the city.

Mr. Thandapani clarified that union government departments have to pay service charges to the corporation as per the Supreme Court directive and union government circulars. He made it clear that exemption could not be given for government buildings which were vacant. If the departments concerned submitted written requests in this regard, action would be initiated as per rules. He appealed to the officers to seek financial allocations from their respective departments to pay up their dues. If they failed to do so, the corporation would take up the matter with the department heads or secretaries of the departments concerned, he said.