Chennai: As no one turned up to buy the late Malayalam actress Srividya's flat here, the Income Tax Department (I-T Department) has postponed the auction.
The flat was put on auction by the I-T department to recover the tax arrears, which amounts to Rs 45 lakh. The base amount of the flat was fixed at 1.14 crore.
Earlier, the officials at the I-T department had said that they were going ahead with the auction proceedings with the permission of KB Ganesh Kumar, Malayalam film actor and Pathanapuram MLA, who is the legal custodian of Srividya's properties.
The flat is currently rented by one Umasankar, a lawyer.
Umasankar said he had rented the flat from Srividya in 2005, before the actress succumbed to cancer one year later. He had been paying a monthly rent of Rs 13,000.
Srividya had not paid the tax from 1996 until her death; hence the arrears skyrocketed to a whopping Rs 45 lakh.
The I-T department has decided to auction off the flat as the monthly rent of Rs 13,000 collected from the tenant is insufficient to cover the arrears.
