Why are lock & seal notices issued suddenly for more than 200 schools in TN?
Posted on: 24/Mar/2022 9:31:03 AM
The Town Planning and Municipal Administration Act have been taken into consideration now and an order has been issued to more than 200 schools that have failed to pay their property taxes for the last 2 years. This has caught the attention of many now. It is now revealed that the pending amount due to non-payment of the property taxes would be in several crores.
On 26th March some private schools would be taking part in protests demanding more time to pay the property taxes. The schools have incurred huge losses because of the Coronavirus infection pandemic and it is now said that most schools would seek some tax relief. Information is that all buildings used for educational purposes would have to pay property taxes compulsorily and this was according to the rule under the municipal laws governing the local bodies.
The elections of local bodies were completed and the municipal authorities have started preparing a list of schools that have not yet paid their property taxes. This was mentioned by a senior official belonging to the school education department. He added that till now more than 200 schools have received lock and seal notices in several districts in Tamil Nadu. It must be noted that the property taxes would be collected based on the school campus area. Important information is that many schools haven�t yet paid their property taxes for 3 years.
The authorities have been instructed to collect the property taxes from the schools immediately as the pandemic has been brought under control now. The schools that have not paid the property taxes would be identified and notice would be issued to them too. It is learnt that a short time frame would be provided to the schools management to remit the property tax amount.
Since enough time was not provided to pay the property taxes protest would be there on 26th march and this was as per Mr. K.R. Nandhakumar, general secretary, TN Private Nursery Primary Matriculation Higher Secondary and CBSE Schools Association.
The schools were closed for the last 2 years and only online classes were held. This was stated by Mr. D.C. Elangovan, secretary, FAPCIT. He added that schools were not able to pay salaries for the teachers plus they were unable to pay the loan amount that was taken to build new classrooms etc.
He concluded that now parents are paying the school fees and the authorities must give enough time for the schools to pay their property taxes.
