COIMBATORE: Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has collected the highest property tax in FY 2022-23 among the 20 municipal corporations in the state, excluding the Greater Chennai Corporation. Kancheepuram Corporation comes second and Erode corporation is in third place.
CCMC Commissioner M Prathap said the civic body collected around Rs 410.38 crore, including 93% of the current and 49% of the arrear demands in FY 22-23. However, it managed to collect 85.5% of current demand and around 35% of the arrear demand in FY 21-22.
“Assigning one bill collector to each of the 100 wards was the first step that we took in order to expedite tax collections. We also held weekly meetings to review the weekly tax collection and identify the defaulters. We made a list of the top 100 defaulters in all 100 wards, tracked them, and collected the long pending dues from them. We frequently issued notices to the people, announcements in FMs and sealed the tax defaulters’ buildings,” he said.
It may be recalled that CCMC implemented the revised property tax on July 7. Tax assessment for new buildings was put on hold due to several issues, including the creation of zones. The revenue department of CCMC split the city into four tax zones - A, B, C and D. The civic body began receiving applications for new tax assessment from October 19.
Meanwhile, Kancheepuram collected Rs 19.38 crore in FY 22-23, including arrears, while Erode collected Rs 43.38 crore including arrears. Salem Corporation secured the last position in property tax collection. Officials in Salem Corporation said, “Tax collection was not done properly because of which arrears accumulated and we were not able to collect tax as well as arrears together. Now an additional period of one month has been given and we will collect the outstanding tax amount.”
Salem Mayor A Ramachandran said, “Now the rate of tax has been increased and tax is collected without being harsh to anyone. So, the amount of tax collection has decreased. Awareness is being raised among the public. Dues will be collected soon.”