The size of the corporation budget was Rs 2,922 crore in 2012-13. There has been an increase of Rs 707 crore this year.

Despite the law saying the corporation should revise property taxes
every five years, the civic body has not hiked it since 1998. As a
result, its revenue is the lowest among the corporations of the six
metros. This year, it has collected Rs 370 crore against its target of
Rs 558 crore.

A corporation official said, “It is a challenge
for us to generate funds for development. If we fail to find money, it
will reflect on our major projects. Some projects could not be completed
as there has been a drop in tax collection. So we will give priority to
tax collection.”

Records show that the number of tax payers in
the city has increased from 6.5 lakh to 10.82 lakh after the expansion
of the city. The civic body has not revised the property tax in the old
limits.

“The revision of property tax is held up due to
political reasons. The only option is to increase collection,” said a
senior corporation official. In a bid to increase tax collection, the
civic body will introduce collection counters in each of the 200 wards.