Property tax is levied on buildings and vacant land unless specifically exempted. The municipality entrusted with regulating, managing and collecting property tax in Chennai is ‘The Greater Chennai Corporation’.
As per the regulation, Greater Chennai Corporation adopts reasonable letting value (RLV) to arrive at annual rental value (ARV), which is used to compute half-yearly tax for any property in Chennai City corporation limits. The monthly RLV is computed with reference to the basic rate per sq. feet fixed by the corporation for residential and non-residential properties depending upon the location of the property.
Types of Property | Rates (per square foot) |
Residential | Rs.0.60 - Rs.2.40 |
Non-Residential | Rs.4 - Rs.12 |
These are the rates before the revision in April 2022, for finding the revised rates for your area please refer to the pdf provided on the Chennai Municipal Corporation website.
Chennai municipal corporation is divided into 15 zones. You can know your zone and division here.
Recently Chennai property tax was revised in April 2022 after a 24-year period, the taxes were revised in the range of 50% to 150%. It may be noted that earlier Chennai property tax was revised in the year 1998 and was due for revision every four years and should have been increased by 25% in the case of residential property and 100% in the case of commercial properties during every revision.
In August 2017 Madras High Court slammed Chennai municipal corporation for not revising the property tax rates since 1998 and as per the Court’s estimation, this non-revision has led to a revenue loss of over Rs 1500 crore.
The Madras HC has directed the municipal corporation to spell out the date by which property tax rates would be revised. However, presently municipal corporation officials are concentrating on the rationalisation of property tax which would still increase the revenue by at least 150 crores every year and would like to take up the general revision of property tax after one year.
Half-yearly property tax is a percentage of annual value and a 10% library cess on property tax. The percentage of half-yearly property tax is as follows:
Particulars | Half-yearly property tax % |
Annual value between Re 1 and Rs 500 | 3.75% |
Annual value between Rs 501 and Rs 1000 | 6.75% |
Annual value between Rs 1001 and Rs 5000 | 7.75% |
Annual value above Rs 5000 | 9% |
Annual value of land and building
Chennai property tax computation takes into consideration the following factors in arriving at Annual value-
To put it otherwise, 10.92 is the common factor for calculating an annual value for all buildings. To arrive at the Annual value of any building, multiply MRV by 10.92.
The formula for arriving at ARV of superstructure only
10% *(MRV*12)
The due date for payment of property tax is September 30 and March 31
A penalty at 1% per month is charged in case of delayed payment after a 15 days grace period.
Offline Assessment
The above procedure can be followed even in case of modification of building, appeal with respect to property tax and transfer of property tax. New assessment order (Notice 7) will be issued in case of modification of property, Notice 10 in case of appeal and Notice 9 will be issued in case of transfer of property tax.
Property tax payments can be made either online or offline.
Step 1: Visit the official page at https://chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/online-payment/property-tax/property-tax-online-payment/
Step 2: Next, enter the zone number, division code, bill number, and sub number. The details can be found on your bill.
Step 3: Click on 'Pay Tax'.
Step 4: On the next page, the amount that must be paid will be displayed. Choose the assessment year.
Step 5: Choose the mode of payment.
You will receive an acknowledgement once the bill has been paid.
Cheque/demand draft shall be drawn in favour of ‘The Revenue Officer, Corporation of Chennai’ and make the payment through any of the following:
The payment for the property tax can also be made through “Namma Chennai” app of Chennai Municipal Corporation.
Exemption
Properties owned by the Central Government and buildings occupied by foreign missions are exempt *Recently in March 2018 exemption given to private educational institutions was abolished.
Concessions
The procedure to use the property tax calculator is mentioned below:
The online calculator can be used only for test purposes.
Related Articles:
Delhi Property tax
Mumbai Property tax
BBMP-Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike Property Tax
Property tax in Chennai is regulated by The Greater Chennai Corporation. Recent tax revision in April 2022 imposed 50%-150% increase. Assessment methods involve online/offline procedures. Exemptions, rebates, and penalties are applicable. The formula for tax computation involves Plinth area, Basic rate per Sq ft, ARV. Payments can be made through various modes. Chennai Municipal Corporation introduced various incentives and rebates for specific properties.