Chennai: The Madras High Court has directed the state government to answer by March 21, a query as to why the Tamil Nadu State Property Tax Board Act, which was enacted as early as in 2013 to rationalise and maintain uniformity in the rate of tax to be levied by various local bodies has not yet been notified by it.
The state government has also to answer as to when the newly constituted Property Tax Board would be convened and when the guidelines for effective revision of property tax would be issued by the Property Tax Board as many corporations have not revised for many years, said Justice N. Kirubakaran while passing further interim orders on a contempt petition filed by an employee of Coimbatore Corporation.
The judge said the present contempt petition has been filed on the ground that no payment has been made in time to the petitioner by the Coimbatore Corporation, as per the agreement entered into between the petitioner and the corporation as per the earlier order dated October 29, 2015, of this court.
When the matter was taken up for hearing on February 22, 2018, it was brought to the notice of this court that the payment has not been made to the petitioner on time only because of the financial crunch in the Coimbatore Corporation. This court summoned the Commissioner of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation to answer 7 queries, the judge added.
The judge said, when the matter is called today, Vijayakarthikeyan, Commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation was present before the court and he has filed a report answering the queries.
In the report, it has been stated that to rationalise and maintain uniformity in the rate of tax to be levied by various local bodies, the state government enacted the Tamil Nadu State Property Tax Board Act.
As per section 6 of the Act, the board shall review Property Tax assessment system, However, the Act was yet to be notified by the state government, the judge added.
The judge said the Board would issue necessary guidelines for revising the property tax.
In view of that, this court suo moto impleads Principal Secretary to Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department as a Respondent, the judge added and raised the above 3 queries.
