GHMC collects record property tax, nets Rs 1,000 crore within six months
The property tax collection of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark within six months, which is a record collection for the first six months of any fiscal year.
The GHMC has 30 circles and between April this year till October 28, a total of Rs 1,165.17 crore was collected with Serilingampally circle leading the chart with Rs 171.23 crore, followed by Jubilee Hills circle (Rs 119.49 crore) and Khairatabad circle (Rs.92 crore).
Most of the property owners paid tax online this year and some paid through Mee Seva centers. Apart from bill collectors collecting the tax from several property owners, there were some who paid by visiting the GHMC Citizen Service Centres.
With the One-Time Scheme (OTS) introduced in July, an amount of Rs 92.78 crore was collected through 47,205 assessments and this revenue is part of the Rs.1,165 crore revenue generated from April to October 28 this year.
The OTS offered relief to those struggling with property tax arrears and the scheme will end on October 31. Under this scheme, the State government has ordered a waiver of 90 per cent accumulated arrear interest on property tax. But, the taxpayer should clear the principal amount of the tax dues till 2021-22, along with 10 per cent accumulated interest, at one go.
The plan is to further increase the tax collected under the OTS and as part of the revenue generation activity, the GHMC Commissioner has ordered that October 30 i.e., Sunday will be a working day for the ones associated with this revenue generation exercise.
“As the OTS ends on Monday, the bill collectors will visit the houses on Sunday and ask people to clear the arrear interest. The activity will also be monitored by senior officials of the corporation,” said a GHMC official.
