GCC’s own source of revenue likely go up

To meet the rising expenditure, the civic body had resorted to borrowings

The Greater Chennai Corporation’s own source of revenue as a percentage of income had fallen from 60 in 2010-2011 to 43 in 2020-2021. The revision of property tax is expected to improve this figure this year.

According to the data compiled by the Corporation, the civic body’s own source of revenue has been dropping every year since 2010. The property tax had not been revised since 1998.

Chennai has one of the lowest rates of property tax in the country. The tax revision is expected to protect lower income group. For instance, in Alandur zone, owner of a house with an area of 600 sq ft has to now pay ₹400 as against ₹320 earlier. But the tax for a house of more than 1,201 sq ft has been increased from ₹825 to ₹1,444.

In Madhavaram zone, the tax with regard to a house measuring 600 sq ft area has been revised from ₹220 to ₹275. For a house measuring 1,201 sq ft, the tax goes up from ₹1,485 to ₹2,970.

In Anna Nagar, the tax for a 600 sq ft house has been revised from ₹307 to ₹461. In the case of a house measuring more than 1,201 sq ft area, the tax has been revised from ₹1,485 to ₹2,970.

In Adyar, the tax for a 600 sq ft house in a particular street has been revised from ₹308 to ₹462.

But the tax for a bigger house of 1,201 sq ft will be revised from ₹1,461 to ₹2,922.

In order to meet the rising expenditure of infrastructure projects and welfare measures, the Corporation had resorted to borrowing. In the past five years, the borrowings accounted for 10.42% of total revenue of the Corporation.

The total revenue of the Corporation has been estimated at ₹19,988 crore in the last five years. The performance grants from the Centre had not been released because of the delay in conducting local body election in Chennai in the past few years.