Karunanidhi joins issue with Jaya on property tax revision

Chennai, Mar 29 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today joined issue with AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa on property tax revision issue and said the government had only fixed the upper limit for hiking the property tax by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), which was not compulsory.

''There was no compulsion that the tax must be enhanced'', he said in reply to a question.

Ms Jayalalithaa, who was issuing statement now that property tax should not be hiked, did just the same in 1993 when the AIADMK was in power'', he pointed out He said in 1993, the tax structure was refixed as ''not exceeding 100 per cent for residential buildings and between 150 and 200 per cent for industrial and commercial buildings. But she had forgetten it conveniently and was asking the DMK government whether the tax can be hiked''.

Observing that property tax was an important source of revenue for ULBs, Mr Karunanidhi said after a gap of ten years it had been decided to restructure the property tax and guidelines were issued to ULBs in this regard.

According to the guideline norms, the tax could be revised upto 25 per cent for residential buildings and not exceeding 100 per cent for industries. Similarly the upper limit for commercial buildings would be 150 per cent.

''The ULBs, depending on their specific needs,can notify the proposals in the form of a resolution in the local council and the revised tax structure can be implemented'', he added.

However, there was no compulsion that the new norms must be implemented as the government had only fixed the upper-ceiling on the property tax proposals, he added.

The new norms was aimed at augmenting the revenue of the local bodies. ''If such initiatives are opposed no development activities can be taken up,'' he said.

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