Speaking to reporters after launching the scheme, Mayor M Subramanian said, “The service will provide the citizens of Chennai with the convenience of paying property tax anywhere, anytime and can be used on all GPRS-enabled low end as well as high-end mobile phones.” This is the first time in the country that any property tax payment service is being offered over the mobile phone. Since the DMK-led regime took over the Corporation Council three years ago, the civic body has registered a steady growth in property tax collection year after year, he said.

In 2006-07, the Corporation collected Rs 231 crore as property tax, in 2007-08, it has gone up Rs 291 crore and in the last financial year (2008-09), we have collected Rs 323 crore for the tax kitty, the Mayor further said. He also announced that the civic body is targeting Rs 375 crore as property tax collection for the current financial year (2009-10) and it has collected around Rs 117 crore till Tuesday. Manoj Nair, senior vice president of the service provider ngpay, said, “To avail the service which is exclusively available on ngpay, citizens will have to download the secure ngpay application on to their GPRS-enabled mobile phones by sending an SMS to ngpay to 56767.”