With the tax branch of the municipal corporation starting issuing recovery notices to the property tax defaulters a few weeks back, people are now making a beeline at the civic body seeking various corrections in the records, which could lower their tax burden. Most of such discrepancies are said to have occurred due to the failure of owners to update their property records timely.
According to corporation sources, the maximum number of corrections relate to differences in the constructed and unconstructed areas of buildings, construction of portions of buildings during the period when those did not fall under the ambit of property tax, etc.
“Largely, the issues related to tax are settled, but the cases of correction remain. Many people reconstruct their buildings, but don’t report to the authority timely and when notice of recovery goes to them, they rush for correction. Similarly, some people sell a portion of their properties, but don’t inform the civic body and want the discrepancy fixed at the last moment,” said a corporation official.
After giving over two months’ time to the property tax payers of all categories, the tax branch started sending recovery notices to them in August. Besides notices to residential and commercial properties, the corporation also sent notice to the Division No. 3 of the UT engineering department to pay the due tax.
As per the civic body records, there are around 1.10 lakh property tax payers in the city, out of which around 85,000 are residential properties, while around 26,000 are commercial ones.
