Madras High Court asks officials to seal 729 shops in Koyembedu
Property tax sought to be collected from the shop owners in Koyambedu was not the revised tax, as the last tax revision took place in 1998
Chennai: Slamming officials and higher ups of Chennai corporation for “deliberately” failing and neglecting to revise property tax for the shops in Koyambedu for political gains, Madras high court has directed the civic body to seal all 729 shops in Koyambedu market, for which even non-revised property tax amount from 1998 onwards has not been paid till date.
Suo motu impleading commissioner of police, Chennai, as a party respondent in the case, Justice N. Kirubakaran directed him to give appropriate police protection at the time of sealing the shops.
The judge gave the directives while passing further interim orders on a petition from Kulasekaran and K. Padmanabhan challenging the property tax demand for their shops in Koyambedu from 1996 onwards up to 2015.
The judge said though the petitioners have challenged the property tax demand for their shop in Koyambedu, it was evident during hearing that property tax revision was last done in 1998. The interim orders passed by this court, made the defaulters to make payment to the tune of '2.19 crore from November 17, 2016 to November 29 viz., within 12 days, the judge added.
Of 2,325 shops, 1,566 shop owners have paid property tax to the tune of Rs 2.95 crore before April 27, 2017 and thereafter, 30 shop owners have paid the tax of Rs 13.33 lakh before June 29, 2017 and only the remaining 729 shop owners have to pay property tax of Rs 2.48 crore.
Property tax sought to be collected from the shop owners in Koyambedu was not the revised tax, as the last tax revision took place in 1998. As per the City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919, property tax had to be revised once in four years and as per the provision, four revisions should have taken place after the revision in 1998.
“However, the officials and higher ups of the Chennai corporation had deliberately failed and neglected to revise the tax for political gains. While so, even the non-revised 1998 rate property tax have not been paid by 729 shop owners,” the judge added and directed the corporation to seal the shops and report compliance on July 20.