The Gudalur municipality has passed a resolution exempting defence personnel and ex-servicemen from paying property tax, to honour their sacrifices.
Although the exact number of beneficiaries are yet to be ascertained, more than 100 serving and retired defence personnel own property in the municipality, chairman A Arivarasu said. “The initiative will result in loss of 5 lakh per year. However, we are confident of making it through other sources.”
“Army personnel leave their families at a young age and serve the nation by guarding tough terrains at borders. They can’t spend time with their loved ones. We wanted to recognize their sacrifice and introduced an exemption for them,” Arivarasu told TOI.
Apart from the Army, Air Force and Navy personnel, the municipality plans to exempt paramilitary staff as well.
P Elayaperumal, a CRPF sub-inspector posted in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, thanked the civic body for the initiative. “I wholeheartedly welcome the scheme and appreciate the municipality chairman and councillors. I shared the news with my friends in the Army and paramilitary,” he said.
The municipal council passed the resolution in the meeting held on June 30. But the exemption will come into effect only after obtaining approval from the commissionerate of municipal administration and the state government, municipality commissioner Balraj said. “The municipality is empowered only to pass such a resolution.”
There are 15,500 property tax assessees in the local body, which was upgraded as municipality last year. It has 65,753 residents and 41,500 voters. “We recently introduced a fee of 500 for applications for property name change, building plan approval, new borewells and water connection. We charge 2,500 for name change and 5,500 for permission to drill borewell. We can make up for the lost revenue from such measures,” the chairman said. “We will stamp property tax payment book of army personnel to indicate the exemption, so that they don’t face any difficulties in case they want to sell their property.”
“I received several calls from defence personnel across the state, thanking us for the initiative,” Arivarasu added.
