CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has put on hold, with immediate effect, the property tax reassessment exercise that it had undertaken after it received several petitions over the last few days, seeking to revoke the revision.
In a statement on Thursday, the corporation said the tax will revert to the amount prevailing before the revision and for those assesses who have paid the revised demand, the amount would be adjusted for subsequent half years as advance tax. Speaking to TNIE, GCC commissioner GS Sameeran said the decision was taken based on grievances received from residents.
While there was no general revision of property-tax rates, the civic body had taken up reassessment of properties it found to be under-assessed, issuing 3.49 lakh notices with revised demands. Officials told TNIE that of these, 30,520 assesses had already accepted the reassessment, and GCC had collected an additional Rs 11.10 crore through the reassessment exercise as on Thursday.
GCC had taken up the exercise in the midst of a fund crunch, hoping to increase tax collection by correcting the assessments of under-assessed properties, with the revised assessment being given effect retrospectively from the second half of 2025-26. However, the initiative did not sit well with property owners in the city who were shocked by increases in their tax demands.
The discrepancies in assessment were identified via various exercises including drone-based surveys, satellite data and self-declarations submitted by property owners and other government records. On the other hand, mayor R Priya and deputy mayor M Mageshkumar told reporters on Thursday that they were not consulted ahead of the reassessment.
As part of the GCC exercise, 55% of residential properties saw an increase of less than Rs 1,000 and 95% under Rs 5,000, officials said, clarifying it was not a tax hike but recovery of dues from the penultimate half-year based on the revision.