MADURAI: Tamil Nadu's road to economic recovery stands a long way down with a debt burden of over Rs 5.7 lakh crore. However, the data given by the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration in reply to the queries under Right to Information Act, 2005 reveals that only 35.51 percentage of various taxes was collected by 13 Municipal Corporations (excluding Chennai and Coimbatore) in a pre-covid fiscal year (2018-19).
A social activist, one M Kasimayan, filed RTI queries on August 24, seeking the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration to provide information on demand, collection and balance amount of various taxes collected in the 15 Municipal Corporations across the State. He has also sought the list of defaulters in each of these 15 Corporations. While the list of defaulters is said to be sent by the respective Corporations, which he is yet to receive, the CMA has provided the abstract of tax collection except for Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations. Accordingly, seven types of taxes, including the property tax, vacant land tax, water supply, underground drainage, professional tax, non-tax and solid waste management user charge (SUC) are being collected in all the Corporations. The 13 corporations include Avadi, Dindigul, Erode, Hosur, Madurai, Nagercoil, Salem, Thanjavur, Thoothukudi, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Tiruppur and Vellore.
Speaking to TNIE, Kasimayan said that as Greater Chennai Corporation is out of the jurisdiction of CMA, he was asked to file a separate query with the Chennai Corporation. Besides, the reply read that the details were attached for 14 other corporations but there were neither any details on Coimbatore Corporation, nor were there any explanation for it. "A sum of Rs 5,855 crore was the target tax collection amount for three fiscal years from 2018 to 2021. Only 40 percent of this has been collected. If Chennai and Coimbatore are included, the pending amount would alone sum up to Rs 5,000 crores. The Covid outbreak which was in the fiscal year 2020-21 is often claimed to be the reason for economic decline these days. However, the figures prove that the tax collection was poor even before the outbreak of the pandemic. Thanjavur, Madurai, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and Vellore cities have shown a very poor performance in tax collection (less than 30 percent of taxes has only been collected). Delay in collection of these taxes, which is the general fund used for all developmental works in the city, would affect the city's growth directly," he said.
He also noted that the demand amount has been reduced from Rs 2025.73 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 1887.69 crore in 2019-20. "Usually the tax demand would increase year by year. But it has reduced between the two fiscal years. A survey should be conducted to assess all the establishments and the tax should be revised," he said. Pointing out to the data obtained through a previous RTI query some three months ago, he said that there were differences in collection and balance amounts in Avadi Corporation suggesting irregularities. He urged the government to look into such irregularities and tax evasions.
Speaking to TNIE, Madurai Corporation Commissioner, KP Karthikeyan explained that there were a lot of litigation issues around property tax assessments. Some residential establishments were assessed as commercial establishments and vice versa. Few other groups of people, who are bulk payers have also approached the court seeking concession in tax. Court orders have come in favour of the government and the collection and revision process is underway. "This apart, there are some systematic issues as well. There are also cases of duplicate tax payments and cheque bounces. Many owners of vacant lands could not be traced resulting in very less collection of vacant land tax. There is no procedure for online payment for professional tax. Collection mechanism is only carried out physically," he said, adding, "We are working with banks to facilitate other modes of payment. Further, a team was also constituted months ago to study these issues and a report has also been submitted. We are hopeful that the structure would be revamped in the next three months and substantial progress in tax collection would be seen in the next six months."
Officials from CMA were not available for comment.
Corporations that collected the least amount of taxes (in percentage)
2018-2019
Tanjavur – 26.72
Thoothukudi – 27.71
Tirunelveli – 29.31
Madurai – 29.98
2019-20
Tanjavur – 32.83
Vellore – 33.43
Madurai – 35.45
Tirunelveli – 42.23
2018-19 (Tax amount value in crores)
Tax Details | Demand | Collected | Balance |
Property Tax | 1080.56 | 375.11 | 705.44 |
Vacant Land | 113.40 | 21.90 | 91.50 |
Water Supply | 236.37 | 109.87 | 126.50 |
UGD | 115.14 | 23.87 | 91.27 |
Professional | 127.09 | 69.86 | 57.22 |
Non-Tax | 279.15 | 77.64 | 201.51 |
SUC | 73.99 | 41.00 | 32.98 |
Total | 2025.73 | 719.28 | 1306.45 |
2019-20 (Tax amount value in crores)
Tax Details | Demand | Collected | Balance |
Property Tax | 831.81 | 426.53 | 405.28 |
Vacant Land | 111.25 | 26.56 | 84.69 |
Water Supply | 275.39 | 135.00 | 140.38 |
UGD | 128.76 | 30.70 | 98.68 |
Professional | 144.36 | 77.67 | 66.68 |
Non-Tax | 318.76 | 91.40 | 227.35 |
SUC | 77.34 | 50.41 | 26.92 |
Total | 1887.69 | 837.67 | 1050.02 |
2020-21 (Tax amount value in crores)
Tax Details | Demand | Collected | Balance |
Property Tax | 847.56 | 405.60 | 441.95 |
Vacant Land | 121.01 | 26.05 | 94.95 |
Water Supply | 290.41 | 126.86 | 163.55 |
UGD | 138.55 | 31.29 | 107.25 |
Professional | 154.49 | 79.26 | 75.22 |
Non-Tax | 311.79 | 61.43 | 250.36 |
SUC | 77.71 | 45.36 | 32.34 |
Total | 1941.54 | 775.88 | 1165.66 |
Three fiscal year abstract (amount in crores)
Year | Demand | Collected | Balance | Collection % |
2018-19 | 2025.73 | 719.28 | 1306.45 | 35.51 |
2019-20 | 1887.69 | 837.67 | 1050.02 | 44.38 |
2020-21 | 1941.54 | 775.88 | 1165.66 | 39.9 |
Total | 5855 | 2333 | 3522 | 39.8 |
The figures prove that the tax recovery was less in pre-covid fiscal year 2018-19 than the Covid hit year 2020-21.