Get your figures right, House tells Corporation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Slovenly arithmetic has led to a needless tussle between the Legislative Assembly and the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. With the State Legislative Assembly Complex being one of the property tax defaulters, the Corporation had slapped a notice on it asking it to pay up immediately. On Sunday, during a press briefing, Speaker G Karthikeyan commented that the Assembly would pay up promptly, provided the Corporation properly assessed the amount his office owed it. Reason: the Corporation had asked the Assembly to pay - Rs. 8 crore according to the Assembly officials - property tax for the years since 1987, but the two buildings in the complex had come up only in the 1990s. The Speaker said that his office has written to the Corporation seeking a correct assessment. Assembly secretary P D Rajan said the Corporation had issued a notice saying that the Assembly had to pay up ` 8 crore, dating from 1987, which was incorrect. According to Assembly officials, the main block of the State Assembly was inaugurated only in 1998 and the administrative block had come up six years earlier in 1992. The correct tax would only come to a fourth of the amount now demanded by the Corporation, they said. Mayor K Chandrika said there was no issue at all since the Corporation had concurred with the Assembly’s demand and reassessed the tax amount. ‘’I understand that the final report is on the Corporation Secretary’s table. It only has to be forwarded to the Legislature Secretariat,’’ she said. It’s not just the Assembly that the Corporation is miffed with, courtesy property tax dues. A local audit report had pointed out that the Corporation had failed to collect the tax from various government buildings and the Corporation, last July, had urged the state government to help it collect the dues. According to the statistics furnished by the local body at the time, the Legislative Assembly owed Rs. 19 crore, the Jalabhavan Rs. 50 crore, all the other government offices together Rs. 1.8 crore and PWD buildings a total of Rs. 28 lakh.