GHMC property tax assessment moving at snail’s pace
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the civic body's revenues were hit hard and it is now relying on improving its property tax collection
Hyderabad: Despite the possibility of getting the under-assessed and un-assessed properties under the tax regime through properties surveys, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) appears to be going slow in taking up such an exercise.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the civic body’s revenues were hit hard and it is now relying on improving its property tax collection. However, it’s actions remain confined to merely issuing notices to those not paying the property tax dues and conducting special programmes to increase the tax revenue.
In 2018, the GHMC conducted a pilot project of using satellite images for identifying unassessed or under assessed structures in Moosapet circle. Officials then informed that nearly 9,000 unassessed structures were identified from that circle. Following the survey results, the municipal corporation commenced a 2D GIS mapping survey of the structures in the city in November 2019.
The survey which was conducted till March 2020 was suspended due to the Covid pandemic. As part of the GIS-tagging survey, the municipal corporation personnel had visited over 99,450 structures and of these nearly 2,000 were found to be unassessed and over 10,000 under assessed, informed an official from GHMC.
As part of the survey, the structures in the city were divided into nearly 344 dockets and of these 45 dockets were opened till date. “However, apart from the pandemic, there were other issues like technical support and glitches and lack of manpower to continue to the survey,” the official said.
In addition to increasing property tax collections, the data from the survey can help in several different ways, especially planning welfare measures, identifying key aspects, disaster and relief management etc.
The exercise will take at least couple of years and considering the benefits of the survey, exclusive teams have to be set up to complete the exercise, the official explained.
GHMC aims to collect Rs.1900 crore
This financial year, the GHMC which set itself a target of collecting Rs.1900 crore towards property tax has till date, collected nearly Rs.1300 crore. The balance is to be collected by March 31 and officials are confident of achieving the target.
To this effect, property tax grievances redressal programme are being conducted till March 28 on all Sundays at all circle offices. These programmes are being conducted from 9.30 am to 1 pm and all the tax related issues, including revised petitions on assessment of property tax, legal court cases will be addressed.
Last financial year, the municipal corporation had collected Rs.1472 crore towards property tax.
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