MADURAI: The Madurai corporation commissioner has submitted a detailed action plan to verify property tax assessments for all buildings within the city limits. In response, the Madras High Court directed the state to issue a circular to all corporations, municipalities, and town panchayats, advising them to adopt the Madurai corporation model.
Following a previous order, Commissioner Chitra Vijayan reported to the court that 100 teams have been formed for property tax assessments across the city’s wards. Each team consists of a tax collector, a technical assistant, and a sanitary supervisor. The officials have undergone training in the new assessment procedures, and various officers, including superintendents and administrative officers, have been assigned to conduct inspections.
The first phase of the initiative will involve inspecting 65,994 buildings, categorized into 40,261 commercial, 2,315 industrial, 317 private educational institutions, and 23,101 residential buildings using EB connections associated with commercial entities. In a subsequent phase, assessments for 196,082 additional buildings will be conducted. This systematic approach will include property identification, ward-wise assessments, detection and correction of previous assessments, inspection conduct, data recording and digital uploads, along with continuous monitoring and verification.
An 11-member committee, overseen by the deputy commissioner (revenue) of the corporation, has been established to monitor and verify the submissions of sub-committees in each of the five zones. This committee will report to the corporation commissioner, who will, in turn, report to the director of municipal administration.
Given the nearly 349,839 property assessments in Madurai corporation, the completion of this process will take significant time. However, the action plan will be executed with diligence in collaboration with the district collector, ensuring strict oversight, transparency, and accountability, as stated by the commissioner.
A division bench comprising Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice G Arul Murugan acknowledged the efforts of the commissioner and district collector for developing the action plan. The judges instructed the state to circulate similar guidelines to all local authorities across the state, taking into account a public interest litigation filed by AIADMK councillor T Ravi, which revealed a massive property tax assessment scam leading to over Rs 200 crore in revenue losses for the corporation in 2024.
