In Tambaram, a commercial building springs up, another floor is added to a house and a vacant stretch along a busy road turns into a parking lot almost every month. Yet much of this does not show up in the revenue records. Five years after it was upgraded from a Chennai suburban municipality to a corporation, Tambaram’s revenue increase has been lukewarm, as the civic body has not expanded its tax and non-tax revenue base smartly.An analysis by TOI shows that outdoor advertising, property tax reassessment, arrear recovery, professional tax and regulated parking could together raise the corporation’s annual revenue from around ₹1,447 crore in 2026-27 to about ₹2,000 crore in the next fiscal. Once a 20.7sqkm municipality, it now covers about 85sqkm across five zones and 70 wards, with a population of nearly 10 lakh. Even so, property records have not kept pace.The records show 2.3 lakh assessed properties based on a 2019 assessment. “At least 1.5 lakh more buildings have come up after Covid. But only a handful of people register changes and get confirmation from the civic body before construction,” said D S Sivasamy, former additional director of municipal administration and water supply department. He said local-level monitoring has also weakened. “A decade ago, a register was managed by corporations to keep track of new buildings. No such register exists now,” he said.Property tax could be the biggest source of additional revenue, a senior corporation official said. Of the assessed properties, only 42.4% of owners pay their tax in full. The civic body also has a large pool of arrears, running up to ₹200 crore. The proportion of annual taxpayers increased from 56% in 2023-24 to 58.2% in 2025-26. Experts say a fresh assessment could increase the number of assessed properties to around four lakh, generating ₹100 crore more revenue.“Recently, the property taxes were increased from ₹414 a year to ₹4,760 in some areas without prior notice. If a property has been assessed, how can the tax be revised? They should collect taxes from defaulters rather than increasing the burden on those who pay,” said S Jayaram from East Tambaram.Outdoor advertising is another largely untapped source. Tambaram has only 84 authorised ad spaces, generating ₹1.26 crore annually. It has around 580 roads and 51 bus shelters. At least 100 unauthorised billboards operate at prominent stretches. The monthly advertising rate is ₹4,500 per sqm. A 30sqm billboard fetches at least ₹1.35 lakh per month. Better use of billboards, bus shelters, medians and other spaces could increase the ad income to ₹50 crore annually.Commercial establishments in areas such as Radial Road and West Tambaram have converted vacant spaces into parking areas. At least one lakh vehicles pass through the stretch daily. A regulated policy, with a parking complex, could generate up to ₹84 crore annually. Professional tax also remains under-assessed. At present, 1,22,384 salaried professionals contribute about ₹40 crore. The corporation now gets about ₹85 crore from vacant land tax, profession tax, water charges, sewerage charges, UGSS and other non-tax revenue. Better assessment and collection could raise this pool to ₹156 crore.R Saranya, the civic body commissioner, said they had begun steps to improve collections. “We sent notices to defaulters and gave them time till the end of this month to pay up. We are working to resolve the issue of increased taxes in a few localities,” she said.
