GHMC eyes record property tax collection
Despite the pandemic, the civic body was able to collect Rs 364.23 crore in April under the Early Bird scheme
Hyderabad: Undeterred by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is trying out everything it can to keep its coffers flush with funds, with special focus on property tax collections.
Despite the pandemic, the civic body was able to collect Rs 364.23 crore in April under the Early Bird scheme. The scheme offers a five per cent rebate to those paying property tax for the financial year 2021-22.
Seeing the revenue generation potential and taking into consideration the market position due to Covid-19, the scheme has now been extended till May 31. As part of this revenue generation exercise, GHMC officials have been given circle-wise targets to collect property tax. The target amount is different for each circle.
The civic body, officials say, now wants to generate an additional Rs 400 crore by May 31. As per records, within four days i.e. from May 1 to May 4, Rs 11 crore was collected as property tax. “In 2020-21, under the scheme, around Rs 573 crore was collected and this year, the GHMC aims to surpass last year’s collection,” an official from the civic body’s revenue wing said.
“The onus lies on GHMC deputy commissioners, tax inspectors and bill collectors to reach targets in their respective jurisdiction,” he said, adding that efforts were underway to collect trade licence fee as well to generate more revenue. “GHMC officials are approaching traders and asking them to pay the fee before May 30. We are informing traders that penalty will be imposed for late payments,” a GHMC official said.
Traders who renew their license between April 1 and May 30 will be imposed 25 per cent of license fee as a penalty and those who renew their license from May 31 onwards will be imposed 50 per cent of license fee as penalty. Only the traders who renewed their licence before March 31 were not charged an additional amount.
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