How to submit self declaration form for property tax assessment in Chennai

Following a GO to raise property taxes, Greater Chennai Corporation has asked all home owners to submit a self declaration with details of their property. By this Friday, August 31st. If you're wondering how to go about it, this guide will help you.

If you are an apartment or home owner in Chennai, you would most likely have received a form for self declaration of Property Tax, from the revenue office of Greater Chennai Corporation. Most home and apartment owners were caught unawares, not only by the requirement itself, as there has been no such form to fill in the past twenty years, but also by the deadline of August 31st to fill and submit it. Here is a quick explainer about the form and its connection with property tax.

According to a senior official from Chennai Corporation, there are 12.65 lakh home and apartment owners in the city of Chennai. All owners are required to pay property tax, levied on a half yearly basis. 

The A-B-C of property tax

Property tax is calculated based on the plinth area (built up area measured at the basement), basic rate of the street in which the property is located, usage of building (residential or non residential), nature of occupancy (owner or tenant) and age of the building.  

Property owners should pay the tax twice a year before the end of March and September. There is also an option to pay annually (second half in advance)

It can also be paid offline at the offices of the revenue officer or the assistant revenue officer of the Zonal offices I to XV and at any of the branches of Axis Bank, Canara Bank, City Union Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank.

The Tamil Nadu Government in its Government Order (GO) dated April 1 2018, ordered the general revision of property tax in all the urban local bodies, to be taken up with effect from the current half year of 2018-19, as per the provisions of the relevant Urban Local Bodies Act. As per the revised plan, property tax has been increased by 50% for residential occupation and 100% for commercial buildings.

How can the self declaration forms be filled?

The GO requires property owners to self-assess their properties. 

Owners should have the basic details ready – Zone number, Division (ward) number and Bill number  – this information is available on the Property Tax card.

“Even though the records of house owners are available in the revenue department, it is the procedure to inform them. Besides asking the owners to evaluate their own property, self declaration forms serve as the information base before we increase taxes,” said the corporation official.

Self declaration forms are available for download on the corporation’s website; they can also be collected at the respective zonal offices. It is a fairly simple form, and the online process takes five minutes, according to a home-owner who filled it last week.

It is also important to register one’s mobile number with the Corporation, in order to receive alerts and OTPs for availing various civic services online. If a mobile number is already registered with the GCC, an OTP verification is all that is required to pull up the home owner’s property tax record. Some fields such as name of owner, address, etc are pre-filled. If a number is not previously registered, a home owner can do so now and proceed with the online verification right after that.

With the help of the Property tax card or the original property documents, the following details need to be filled in –

  • Land area of the individual plot  (Undivided share in case of apartment)
  • Floor wise built up area – whether residential or commercial, permanent or semi-permanent
  • Year of construction

What happens after the form is submitted?

Upon submitting the form after completing the above details, an SMS will be received by the home-owner acknowledging the submission with a reference number. Offline submissions will also receive a stamped acknowledgement counterfoil.

By when does one need to file this form?

The deadline for submission of such self assessment declaration is August 31st, however no penalty has been specified yet for failing to meet this deadline.

It remains to be seen how effective this measure will be in increasing the GCC database of home owners in the city of Chennai.

**Postscript: Consequent to queries from many of our readers, the Citizen Matters Chennai team reached out to the Revenue department of the Greater Chennai Corporation for guidance on correction of errors in records and filing.

If there are errors in the records pulled up when a home owner enters his or her details, they can keep the details (Zone, Division, Bill and Sub numbers) handy and call the revenue department of GCC at 044 25619229, to request a correction.

However, if a self declaration has already been filed and there are mistakes in it, the assessee must come to Ripon Building in person to request the correction, according to the official spoken to.

Comments:

  1. Jeyakumar says:

    There is no provision for editing the online declaration details in case of error…

  2. Bhuvana says:

    How to edit the form after submission

    • MEENA SIVAKUMAR says:

      i HAVE FILLED UDS PORTION BY MISTAKE IN NON RESIDENTIAL COLOUMN CAN IT BE EDITED

      • Ram says:

        Online uploading of form is not enabled. It has to be manuall submitted. Download another form complete properly and submit . Once submitted as per info available prob report in person to Rippon Buildings for necessary amendments.

  3. Pallavi says:

    What should NRIs do if they don’t have a registered mobile number in Chennai? The website only allows +91 mobile numbers.

  4. CHELLIAH says:

    If the land is vaccant without any building. Under select type of building only two options are there for independent or flat. How to fill if it is vaccant land.

  5. CHELLIAH says:

    How to fill the details for vaccant Land. There is only option for independent or flat in the selection of type of building. How to fillup the land sq.ft.

  6. K Venkataraman says:

    No column to mention UDS online form.

  7. Arun Parekh says:

    Online submission of Property Tax Self Declaration is not working. I did not receive OTP after any of my 20 attempts.

  8. Pasha says:

    Inn the online form, should I included the UDS in the TOTAL area or only the built up area of the flat? It is not clear. For an owner of a single apartment, (not the owner of all the flats in the building), should each flat owner include the head room of the stairs and the lift area? Then all the flat owners seem to be including these areas under each of their apartment. I am not clear what should we do.

  9. S RAMESH CHANDAR says:

    i had entered 1st &2nd floor in NON RESIDENTIAL PORTION while submitting self declaration online, this can be corrected through online

  10. Baba says:

    Why don’t they create an app? Simple like 1,2,3, India is making app for rest of the world, not to chennai corporation?? Huh??

  11. Nandakumar G says:

    If the existing tax assessment particulars of UDLS & Super built up area is correct; and the tax receipt is up to date, plus the mobile number given is correct & current then why should one resubmit a self assessment at all ?

  12. Saravanan says:

    tried submitting the form on 12/9/18 from abroad but could not make it due to some problem. not sure. How to resubmit it.

  13. Sakthi says:

    is there any extension after 16th September? Please let me know immediately

  14. Kannan says:

    I have missed the Sep 16 deadline and the website does not display the form or the process for online submission anymore. Please help

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