Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to form special teams to re-verify the number of property tax assessments in the OId City to enhance property tax collection.
A GHMC official said that though the target is to Rs 200 crore annually, the corporation was getting only Rs 70 crore. He said the officials were failing to meet the monthly targets set by the civic body. Despite the early bird rebate scheme in April, the corporation could collect only Rs 47.39 crore in the current year. Officials claimed that if property tax was collected strictly after the re-verification, the revenue might increase by Rs 200 crore.
According to highly-placed sources in the corporation, there are over 1 lakh under-assessed and non-assessed properties in Malakpet, Santhoshnagar, Chadrayangutta, Charm-inar, Falaknuma and Rajendernagar circles in Charminar zone. Out of the total 2,36,062 assessments, a mere 40 per cent of property owners have been paying property tax regularly.
Sources said that besides re-verifying the properties, the corporation has also decided to raise awareness among corporators, local leaders and NGOs about the importance of paying property tax on time. They said that merely enhancing the property tax would be pointless if it was not collected.
A senior GHMC official said that the corporation would also constitute special teams for tax collection. Intensifying the tax collection drive has brought in only Rs 3.65 crore in Charminar against the target of Rs 8.31 crore.
The official said that the revision of property tax and collection would be done by the corporation simultaneously.
The official said that for August, the corporation has set a target of Rs 50 crore for LB Nagar, Khairatabad, Serilingampally, Kukat-pally and Secunderabad zones. Against the target of Rs 123.75 crore for all six zones, the corporation has managed to collect Rs 6.75 crore from LB Nagar zone, Rs 10.08 crore from Khaira-tabad, RS 7.34 crore from Serilingampally, Rs 20.31 crore from Kukatpally and Rs 19.16 crore from Secund-erabad. The property collection was short by Rs 81.31 crore in July.
