Tirupur corporation brings 24,000 buildings under tax ambit

TIRUPUR: The Tirupur corporation has brought another  24,162 buildings, which were earlier either under assessed or omitted, under the property tax assessment. The move would see tax revenue soar by another Rs 32 crore.

“We have updated the details about all the 24,162 buildings in the computerized tax system. It will bring property tax revenue up by Rs 32 crore. We have found another 8,000 buildings in the same category. But we are yet to bring them under the property tax assessment. Once that is done, the revenue flow will go up by another Rs 12 crore,” a senior corporation official said.

The corporation is planning to issue notices to the owners of these buildings, but for now, it has decided against directing them to pay the tax arrears. Presently, 2,29,718 buildings are under the property tax assessment in the city corporation limits.

“Many people have constructed buildings deviating from approval plans. Such violations can be monitored and curbed now. But in the case of old buildings, there is no record. In other cases, we can identify the buildings built or extended without the corporation’s approval. Those under-assessed or ‘omitted’ buildings in terms of property tax were causing huge loss to us,” said corporation commissioner M Ashokan.

There was a state government direction to identify such buildings. “The civic body has so far identified 24,162 such buildings and brought them under the property tax assessment,” said S Gunasekaran, Tirupur South MLA.

“There was a conscious effort from the part of the corporation to bring such commercial establishments and industries under the tax assessment. In the case of residential buildings, those totally ‘omitted’ from the property tax are taken into account, not others,” the MLA said.