10% incentive helps, GCC's April property tax collection rises to Rs 505 crore

CHENNAI: In 2020, the cash-starved GCC was in for a shock when the whole world went on a COVID-induced lockdown, and the property tax collection plummeted.

When restrictions began lifting slowly the same year, the civic body brought an incentive scheme to encourage residents to pay property tax on time. It announced that owners who paid property tax within 30 days of the commencement of every half fiscal year (April) and (October) would receive an incentive of 5% for each payment.

This scheme is now yielding spectacular results to the GCC in terms of revenue. According to sources inside the Ripon Building, most denizens are eager to pay property tax on time to claim the incentive. “So far, we spent Rs 10 crore for the incentive but collected Rs 505.21 crore as property tax in April, which is Rs 73 crore higher than the previous year. In April 2024, we received Rs 432 crore,” said an official.

Meanwhile, there have been allegations that the civic body increased the property tax without proper notification and also without any instructions from the government. On Saturday, there were reports that the Municipal Administration Department had instructed all the civic bodies to collect property tax at an inflated rate of 6% without issuing any announcement.

However, Corporation Revenue Officer KP Bhanuchandran denied the reports and said, “This is a false and baseless allegation. The State will issue an official statement regarding this. We don’t have any plans to inflate the property tax in the near future,” he added.