GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IN THE CAPITAL COULD MAKE THE CORPORATION RICHER

According to the Revenue wing the Government buildings in Trivandrum has a dues ranging from Rs.20000 to Rs.26 Lakh. The buildings in Nanthencode ward has been identified as tax defaulters , like tourism directorate building, Cliff house (Rs.7 lakhs), Mascot Hotel (Rs50 lakhs) , SC directorate, Devaswom Board and many more. Collecting These arrears from two three wards like this could fetch approximately 3 Crore for the Corporation.

Corporation has issued notice for this list of defaulters under new tax Regime. It was very much difficult for the revenue wing to find out these defaulters as the government buildings had not received building numbers for years. Office buildings need to pay Rs.80/Sq m under new tax regime. Corporation identified over 700 buildings and nearly 1000 building numbers from 49 wards by march. They estimates a swelling of Rs 50 Crore as arrears of Government buildings in terms of property tax. Four wards house over 30 government buildings. TRIDA,KWA,SAP were found to own the highest number of buildings in various wards.

There are also Central Government buildings who has defaulted on service charges, they are also under corporations radar and are in need for fresh assessment. 75% of property tax shall be levied as service charge from central government buildings. Corporation council had earlier considered pending arrears from central government buildings and many arrears were written off as it was calculated over four decades or more.

The arrears are being collected from 2016 as per the order issued by the local self government had revised the period from which tax can be collected under the new tax regime.

Till March, tax based on plinth area was being collected form April 1^st 2013. This period was revised to April 1^st 2016.It was also decided that the penalty for service and library cess as part of property tax reforms will be relaxed if arrears are prepared as single payment or in five equal installments from 1^st of march 2019 within 10 months. The tax levied before the period of April 1^st 2016 may be adjusted in tax payment for future fiscals.