(a)

(1) To the amount of tax due and payable, interest of one and one-half percent (1.5%) shall be added on March 1, following the tax due date and on the first day of each succeeding month, except as otherwise provided in regard to municipal taxes. Any county having a population in excess of seven hundred thousand (700,000), according to the 1980 federal census or any subsequent federal census establishing tax due dates other than the first Monday in October in each year, in accordance with § 67-1-701(a), shall have the authority to establish the date that interest shall begin to accrue as the date of delinquency in lieu of March 1.

(2) The rate of interest as provided in this section may be reduced to an amount of not less than twelve percent (12%) per annum in the aggregate, upon approval by a two-thirds (⅔) vote of the appropriate local governing body that levied such taxes, in any county having a population of not less than twenty-four thousand six hundred (24,600) nor more than twenty-four thousand seven hundred (24,700), according to the 1980 federal census or any subsequent federal census.

(b) In all instances in which current municipal taxes are collected by the county trustee, the following provisions and rules for the collection of delinquent taxes that may be due to the municipalities and none other shall prevail and obtain, anything in this chapter to the contrary notwithstanding:

(1) The taxes levied and assessed by such municipalities shall become due and delinquent on the date as now provided by existing laws; and

(2) If such municipal taxes are not paid on or before the date fixed for the delinquencies thereof, to the amount of tax due and payable, interest of one and one-half percent (1.5%) shall be added on March 1, following the tax due date and on the first day of each succeeding month.