COIMBATORE: In an attempt
to augment its revenue, the city municipal corporation in the budget has
proposed a name transfer fee. The transfer fee will be applicable only
to property tax assessment of buildings and vacant lands in the corporation limits which undergo a change of ownership.

At the moment, the corporation does not have any additional fee for
change of ownership except the nominal application form fee which has to
be submitted after filling up the details of the new owner after
completing the formalities at the registration department. “We have
proposed it in our budget as an option to increase the revenue of the
local body. The new budget has also not included any fresh tax and the
name transfer fee will not be a huge amount,” said S Sivarasu, deputy commissioner, Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.

According to the corporation, there were around Rs 4,00,000 property
tax assessment and vacant land assessment in the corporation limits.
They have also identified that a minimum additional revenue of Rs 2
crore could be generated through the name transfer fee which as per the
budget announcement would be Rs 200 or 0.1 per cent of the property
value or whichever is higher at the time of application. However, a few
city residents claimed that with the government hiking the registration
fee recently, the corporation’s additional fee will be an added burden.
They also raised apprehension about the possibility of the corporation
introducing the fee at the moment and later hiking it as per their
revenue requirements. “Though they have not openly taxed the public in
the budget, the corporation could have avoided the name transfer fee,”
said S Kanagasundaram, former president, Association of Licensed
Building Surveyors.

However, sources in corporation indicated
that the corporation might make some modifications in the name transfer
fee rates at the council meeting in the coming week. The civic body
might reframe the name transfer fee tariff and charge 0.05% for property
whose value is below Rs 50 lakh and 0.01% for those with a higher
market rate. The corporation has announced that it will raise the rent
for its commercial complexes. It had already increased the rent for
those complexes that completed an allotment period of nine years.