The Planters Association of Tamil Nadu (PAT) has appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to exempt labour quarters allocated to plantation workers at the estates from property tax.

Association chairman Vinodhan Kandiah said at its annual meeting recently that based on the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act, 1998, property tax levied on buildings by the local bodies will see an incremental revision of 6% annually. The property tax is calculated on the basis of the annual rental value.

The plantations give the labour quarters to the workers with electricity, water supply, roads, recreation facilities, and sanitation free of cost as mandated under the Plantations Labour Act, 1951. There is no rental value for these buildings. Hence, "these buildings should be treated differently with a low or nominal property tax". The Kerala government has exempted the rent-free labour quarters given to plantation workers from property tax. The Tamil Nadu government should bring about a similar exemption, he said.

He also urged the government to permit the plantations to use a portion of the exempted plantation lands for cultivation of non-plantation crops and to covert a portion of the plantation land for eco-tourism. Such activities should be added in the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms Act so that the plantations can take them up legally on a commercially sustainable basis, he said.