Drone mapping snag delays tax rejig plan

CHENNAI: More than 60 days after the

Greater Chennai Corporation

started drone mapping properties, the civic body has managed to complete the process in only one of the 15 zones in the city.

Corporation officials said property mapping using drones has been completed in Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar (zone VI), one of the smaller zones in the city. An official said drone mapping was nearing completion in

Tondiarpet

(zone IV) and work has begun in

Madhavaram

(zone III).

When the municipal administration minister S P

Velumani

started the 6.43 crore mapping project on November 21, 2017, he had set a 120-day deadline for its completion. "It is hard to set a realistic date (of completion). What we did was to obtain a police permit before stepping into a locality and flying drones. Obtaining clearances on a daily basis is time-consuming," said a corporation official attached to the mapping project.

The delay has forced the city corporation to push back discussions on property tax rationalisation, though civic body officials told TOI in December 2017 that they had worked out methodologies to rationalise tax rate slabs across the city.

Velumani too alluded to the process being put on the back burner on Tuesday, when, after distributing laptops to schoolchildren at

Ripon Buildings

, he told reporters that the government had no plan to raise property tax slabs. "Only after all the properties are mapped would it be feasible to discuss raising or lowering tax slabs," a senior corporation official said.

Meanwhile, the corporation expects to breach the 1,000-crore mark in revenue generation this fiscal. Till January 22, the corporation had collected 535 crore in property tax and around 200 crore in profession tax. "We have earned around 8 crore more between April 2017 and January 2018 (till January 22) compared to the corresponding period in 2016-17," an official said.

The civic body will also gain 10 crore to 15 crore more revenue from entertainment taxes collected in movie theatres.