COIMBATORE: The city corporation has been facing flak for the past several months for conducting drone survey to reassess property tax. On Friday, the civic body had to endure opposition even from the councillors of the Congress, Left parties and the MDMK, who are allies of the ruling DMK.
The councillors of these parties walked out of the corporation council meeting alleging that the drone-based survey had led to erroneous and inflated tax assessments.
The protesting councillors demanded that the corporation immediately withdraw the drone survey and conduct direct field inspections. They also urged the civic body to repeal the annual 6% property tax hike and eliminate the 1% penalty on delayed payments, terming the system unfair.
According to councillors, several property owners received incorrect tax assessments owing to discrepancies in the drone survey data. An elderly couple living in Gandhipuram 8th Street who received a tax demand of Rs1.6 lakh annually for their tiled roof house is a recent example.
“Bill collectors are made to conduct field inspections after the drone survey. So why waste time and money on drones in the first place?” asked C Sharmila, councillor from ward 38.
She also alleged that some officials had manipulated drone survey data to demand higher taxes. “Residents of Gandhipuram and Gandhipark have received excessive tax bills due to miscalculations in the drone survey.”
R Gayathri, councillor from ward 44, pointed out that the drone survey had wrongly classified residential properties as commercial buildings, leading to a sharp tax hike. “Many small business owners use their residential addresses for registration. The corporation, using electricity board data, has wrongly imposed commercial taxes on these households.”
Three AIADMK councillors also opposed the drone-based tax assessment, stating that residents were not adequately informed about the survey.
Speaking at the council meeting, Coimbatore MP Ganapathy Rajkumar said many complaints about wrongful tax assessments had reached the knowledge of top officials. He called for strict action against the bill collectors found to be misusing the survey results.
Meanwhile, authorities have suspended the drone survey in the wake of an order from the directorate of municipal administration.
The corporation is, meanwhile, staring at a heavy shortfall in property tax collection. For the current financial year, the corporation’s target was to collect Rs592 crore, including arrears of Rs123 crore. But the civic body had collected only Rs280 crore (47% of the target) as of January.
Commenting on the allegations, corporation commissioner M Sivaguru Prabhakaran said they had received only a few complaints of incorrect assessment using drones. The flaws in tax assessment was mostly due to clerical errors and those were rectified immediately, he said. “Drones are used to identify commercial buildings, newly constructed buildings and residential buildings being used for complete commercial purposes. As the city grows, tax collection should also increase. This is achievable only by identifying those eluding property tax and regularising tax.”
He said the growth in tax collection was essential for the city to get Central Grants Fund from the Union govt for development projects.
