GHMC tax collection picks up speed
Hyderabad- Financial year is ending and till now the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has collected only Rs 620 crore as property tax.
In 2012, the property tax collection at the same period was Rs 486 crore. This means that the current collection is Rs 134 crore more than the last year. But the corporation is still far from its target of Rs 850 crore.
During assessment, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials found that 7,11,160 property owners have paid their tax among 12,93,453 assessees. This concludes that 5,82,293 property owners are among the list of tax defaulters.
According to GHMC Commissioner, serious actions will be taken if tenants and landowners are not paying property tax on time. These include sealing of immovable properties, seizure of goods etc. He pointed out that demand notices, red notices and counselling by senior officers were delivered as per requirement.
Since the government has refrained penal interest on arrears and the tax for the year on or by March 31, 2013, citizens can use this opportunity to clear tax arrears soon, said the commissioner. This penal interest is waived off only when the arrears and the principal tax amount is paid for the current year. And if the penal interest is already paid before the issue of government notice, it would be adjusted in the coming year.
The interest payment amounts Rs 335 crore in total tax arrears of Rs 1,686 crore. The details of the top 100 tax defaulters is displayed on the corporation website. The total tax arrears from these defaulters amounts Rs 216 crore which includes interest payment of Rs 63 crore.
So far, the new and underassessment cases of property tax have netted around Rs 80 crore. It is expected that atleast Rs 1 crore will be added with the completion of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping in each circle.
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