Chennai Corp property tax collection up 10%

The Chennai Corporation saw an 11 per cent increase in property tax collections at Rs 323.79 crore in 2008-09, as compared with Rs 291.26 crore, a year ago.

This is for the first time the corporation has surpassed its target of Rs 320 crore. The target for the year 2009-10 is Rs 350 crore, according to its website.

In March, the corporation collected around Rs 75 crore. The Nungambakkam zone collected Rs 58.6 crore, followed by Kodambakkam Rs 51.95 crore and Mylapore Rs 41.13 crore. Tondiarpet and Ayanavaram zones contributed Rs 10 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively. A sum of Rs 92.7 crore was collected through the electronic clearance system, walk-in-payment and online payment system.

Initiatives such as collecting tax from the doorsteps helped the corporation achieve its target. It may be recalled that the corporation in October 2008 launched an online system of collection of property tax with the help of Blackberry services of Airtel.