The Greater Chennai Corporation is unlikely to effect a property tax revision until April 2019 but has committed to making tax rates uniform across the city's 15 zones within 90 days.

Last week, the Madras high court criticised the civic body for failing to revise property tax since 1998, which the court estimated had resulted in losses to the tune of over 1,500 crore. In response, special officer and commissioner, D Karthikeyan, filed an affidavit on Monday outlining the status of the revision exercise and the time required to make changes.

"...rationalisation exercise is expected to increase the revenue by at least 150 crore per year. After the rationalisation of property tax is effected, general revision of property tax will be taken up after a period of one year," Karthikeyan said.
The inference is that the special officer's council would adopt a resolution making property taxes uniform in all 15 zones by the end of November 2017. However, effecting the change would not be possible until the start of the financial year in April 2018. According to the affidavit, this implies the civic body would revise and raise the property tax rates by April 2019, after a lapse of 21 years since the last revision.

Until the judiciary heightened its interest in the topic, the civic body had put the issue of tax revision on the backburner. Scores of disgruntled residents from the city's extended areas, who pay higher tax than residents of posh areas within the core city, forced the corporation to form a rationalisation committee in February 2016.

During last week's hearing, Justice N Kirubakaran remarked that political interests had deprived the city corporation from netting a higher revenue through property tax collection. Former AIADMK mayor Saidai S Duraisamy told TOI that while there were "plans to revise tax" during his tenure, the state government did not approve a revision. "The corporation needs the revenue from property taxes. A higher revenue means citizens will get better quality services," he said.

DMK's S Sudharsanam, who is the Madhavaram MLA, said that he would object if the corporation hiked tax rates under the name of revision. "Already my voters pay two or three times higher than Boat Club residents, without being provided the same amenities," he said.

Some additional info on what exactly these slabs/uniform rates would have helped.. There is absolutely no quantitative data here..

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The hearing on the plea has been adjourned to Wednesday when Justice N Kirubakaran has ordered officials to submit details of property tax collection in other municipal corporations in Tamil Nadu.