Even while intensifying its tax collection measures, the Tiruchi Corporation has tasked its bill collectors and officers to identify under-assessment of properties, especially commercial properties, and ensure that they were assessed correctly for property tax.
Corporation Commissioner K.Veera Raghava Rao, who convened a meeting with the assistant commissioners, assistant revenue officers and bill collectors on Thursday, told The Hindu that the focus would on identifying blatant violations such as commercial properties being taxed under the residential category.
“We are trying to widen the tax base, basically. Bill collectors and officers have also been asked to identify properties which have not been assessed for property tax and initiate follow up action,” he said.
The Corporation has so far mopped up about 64 per cent of the property tax demand of about Rs.33 crore for the current year, Mr.Rao said.
As part of the intensified measures, bill collectors have been asked to follow up on the notices served to property owners.
A review would be taken up every fortnight to assess the progress.
Responding to a query on collection of arrears, the Commissioner said the civic body was planning to identify the top 100 defaulters at the ward level and attempt to collect the arrears from them.
The civic body was also planning to introduce systemic changes in the tax collection including introducing GIS-based system. However, these are still in the planning stage, Mr.Rao said. Meanwhile, Mr.Rao has also instructed officers of the different departments of the Corporation to work in coordination to improve sanitation in the city. Health workers and officers of the engineering department have been asked to pay special attention to garbage removal and clearing of clogged drains on a day-to-day basis.
At a meeting with the health inspectors, he directed the officers to ensure that repair and rehabilitation of public toilets and drainages were completed within the specified time frame.
