Greater Chennai Corporation has collected one-third of its half-yearly property taxes so far despite Covid-19 and the lockdown.
About Rs 100.74crore was collected in the past two months. The total half-yearly property tax target is Rs 373crore from 12.43 lakh property assessments. About Rs 86crore in professional taxes has been collected since August. However, with Covid-related expenditure, that includes paying salaries to the door-to-door fever surveillance workers, the corporation has been spending more.
“Despite Covid-19, residents have come forward to pay their taxes online. We sent them SMS requests and our tax collectors visited them personally requesting them to pay the taxes. We concentrated on the high-value properties and big commercial establishments first. We are hopeful of collecting the arrears as well,” said Meghanatha Reddy, deputy commissioner, revenue.
The highest collection has been from Adyar (Rs 17.53crore) followed by Teynampet (Rs 17.27crore) and Ambattur (Rs 12.36crore).
The corporation has an annual property tax target of about Rs 720crore, professional tax target of Rs 340crore and Rs 50crore in trade licences, parking fees and rents. It spends around Rs 100crore in salaries, Rs 150crore in annual loan repayment and Rs 60crore on annual interest outgo.
An official said the corporation’s financial position was slowly improving. So far, it had received Rs 297crore from the World Bank for the stormwater drain project of the Rs 330crore promised, Rs 338crore from capital grant fund from state government of the Rs 451crore sanctioned and Rs 54crore from Chennai mega city development fund of the Rs 220cr sanctioned.