Tamil Nadu government justifies property tax hike

The Tamil Nadu government has justified the recent property tax hike saying it was for development projects and was long overdue.

The state chief minister MK Stalin told the Assembly yesterday, that the tax rationalization has been done in such a way that it won’t adversely affect more than 83 percent of the households. In response to a calling attention motion on the issue in the House, he said the hike has been necessitated by the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission. He said if it was not done, the state-local bodies would be deprived of central funds.

Earlier, opposition leader Edappadi Palaniswamy said the property tax hike has affected the common



public who are under economic strain due to Covid pandemic.

The BJP floor leader Nainar Nagendran said the hike at one go would be more painful than making it an annual hike at a reasonably fixed rate.

The Urban Development Minister KN Nehru in his reply to the motion said only the constructed area of a property has been taken into account while fixing the property tax. He said that, even after the rationalization, the tax rates are still lower as compared to the cities in most other bigger states.

Later, the AIADMK and the BJP members staged a walkout from the House over the issue.