The Kochi Corporation is planning to initiate legal action against those who have defaulted on paying property tax or have under-assessed properties.
The revenue department of the civic body has drawn up a list of around 40 tax defaulters and under-assessees and notices would be issued to them next week, said C.A. Thajudheen, Revenue Officer of the corporation.
Lawyers' cell
Moreover, a special cell of lawyers would be formed to focus on the property tax-related cases in the Kochi Corporation.
The members of the cell would be drawn from the panel of lawyers engaged by the corporation, said Mayor Tony Chammany.
The squads of the Revenue Department, which were formed for identifying tax evasions, have prepared a list on which figure two major city hospitals and a few textile shops, among others.
The entire building of a multi-specialty hospital in the city would be re-assessed as several structures in the complex had not been assessed for tax.
Another hospital management was issued notice asking it to remit a building tax of Rs.2 crore, Mr. Thajudheen said.
Buildings identified
During the present drive, the civic authorities are focusing on buildings under the Vyttila and Edappally zonal offices and the central office of the corporation. The squads are also focusing on Panampilly Nagar where a large number of residential buildings are used for commercial purposes.
They have identified 25 buildings that were assessed as residential ones but were later converted into commercial facilities without informing the civic authorities. Notices would also be served on the owners of these buildings, he said.
Besides reassessing the buildings, officials would also ask the owners of the structures to demarcate parking areas at their buildings as required by law.
Commercial buildings need to provide parking space whereas it is not insisted on in the case of residential buildings with three or fewer floors, he said.
Tax collection up
The tax collection drive initiated by the Kochi Corporation last month has yielded good results, he said.
While the average monthly tax collection of the civic body was around Rs.4 crore, the collection drive during the past 20 days yielded Rs.10.33 crore.
Corporation officials collected Rs.2.79 crore between September 1 and 7 alone. Revenue collection is expected to go up with the completion of the assessment of unauthorised constructions, he said.
The civic body has also announced that its officials would go to all the corporation divisions to collect tax from residents.
