Urban News

The Hindu 22.08.2009

Corporation putting up notices on tax defaulters’ premises

Staff Reporter

— Photo: M.Karunakaran

Reminder: A notice about property tax arrears outside the TICEL Bio Park in Taramani.

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation, which is laying greater emphasis on collection of property tax arrears, has started putting up notice boards on the premises of such properties.

Such boards are coming up in front of properties whose owners owe Rs.15 lakh and more to the civic body.

One such board has been put up by the civic body in front of TICEL Bio Park Ltd. in Taramani, an unit of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. Senior officials of the Chennai Corporation said that the notice had been placed after the civic body’s council had denied exemption from property tax as sought by TICEL. “They had applied to us saying that they are a research and development organisation. We have no provision in our rules for exempting such institutions from payment of property tax. We can give exemptions only to educational institutions,” said a senior official. According to official sources, TICEL owes over Rs.20 lakh as arrears.

A senior TICEL official confirmed that some property tax arrears were there but they had claimed exemption as an R&D institution. “We are in correspondence with them [Chennai Corporation]. We are shortly going to open our next phase and had sought time to discuss the matter after that.”

The Hindu 22.08.2009

Metrowater’s tax demand notices set aside

K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI: It is a settled proposition of law that when a statute prescribes to do a particular thing in a particular manner, the same should not be done in any other manner. The proposition is well recognised as held by the Supreme Court in a case, the Madras High Court has said.

Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar was passing a common order on writ petitions filed by the Madras Sanskrit College and S.S.V. Patasala, Mylapore, seeking to quash the orders of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board of 2000 intimating arrears of water tax.

The petitioner’s case was that the CMWSSB was supplying water to the institution and it was paying water and sewerage tax regularly till March 3, 1994. After the City Municipal Corporation Act was amended, all educational institutions were exempted from property tax. Accordingly, the petitioner was also exempted. The demand for water and sewerage tax was made based upon the annual value as determined by the Chennai Corporation in respect of property tax. From April 1, 1994, no property tax was payable. The institution stopped paying Metrowater and sewerage tax. The CMWSSB Act clearly stated that the board should determine the annual value for each year for assessing the water and sewerage tax. However, insofar as the petitioner was concerned, no such assessment was made by the Board.

Mr. Justice Vasanthakumar set aside the impugned demand notices as no assessment as required under Section 34 of the CMWSSB Act had been made by the Board for all these years while making the impugned demand. When the statute mandated the Board to assess the water and sewerage tax in a particular manner, it was not open to the Board to assess the tax on the basis of property tax assessed earlier by the Chennai Corporation. Section 35 of the Act permitted reliance on property tax assessment which was a stop gap arrangement and the same could not be continued for years together.

The Judge directed the Board to assess the tax as required under law and demand the same from the petitioner. On such assessment, the amount already paid could be given credit to and the arrears, if any, could be demanded from the institution.