The Hindu       20.03.2014

Property Tax to be assessed from date of issuance of occupancy certificate

GHMC will assess the property tax of a building from the date of
issuance of the occupancy certificate, Commissioner Somesh Kumar on
Wednesday told his senior officials including zonal and deputy
commissioners.

The municipal corporation had issued 2,087
occupancy certificates to the buildings in the last three financial
years, covering a total net area of 40,28,412 sq.ft. and directed
officials to complete the verification and assessment of the buildings
within the next two days. Further, teams from the head office will do
the crosschecking.

GHMC has issued 542 no-objection certificates
and hence, property should be assessed from the last two-and-a-half
years. There are about 760 pending court cases involving Rs. 9,730.90
lakh and the GHMC wants every case to be handled carefully.

The
head office can coordinate with departments like town planning, fire,
vigilance & enforcement to clear the cases. Hand held devices too
should be put to good use. The extra staff being deployed from other
departments to collect tax arrears should be utilised to look into 2.02
lakh property tax payers with current amount and arrears minus interest
of up to Rs. 347 crore. Each bill collector has been told to visit 30
tax payers daily and collect their phone numbers.