Civic body collects Rs.1401.09 cr property tax

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) collected Rs 1401.09 crore towards property tax for the financial year 2018-19, which translates to Rs 74.29 crore higher than the last financial year.

Among the Rs 1401.09 crore property tax collections, Rs 461.83 crore was from residential structures, Rs 778.70 crore from non-residential structures and Rs 160.47 crore through mixed-properties.

In tune with the property tax collection, the municipal corporation has managed to generate Rs 854.24 crore through building plan permissions during the 2018-19 financial year, projecting a growth of Rs 207.22 crore compared to last financial year’s collection of Rs 647.02 crore.

This apart, the municipal corporation has managed to collect Rs 73.20 crore through trade licences and advertisement fee for the 2018-19 financial year. Of the Rs 73.20 crore, trade licence collection is Rs 41.36 crore and Rs 31.84 crore was from advertisement fee, GHMC officials said.

Property tax is the major revenue source for municipal corporation. During the 2017-18 financial year, the municipal corporation had collected Rs 1,326.80 crore. However, the municipal corporation could not achieve the set target of collecting



Rs 1,500 crore towards property tax for the 2018-19 financial year and fell short by nearly Rs 99 crore.

Property owners, who failed to pay the taxes before March 31, will be levied two per cent penalty, from April 1. GHMC has sent SMSes to over 4.1 lakh property owners appealing them to pay property tax before the deadline, they said.

Since October last year, majority of the GHMC officials were caught up with election related duties. Yet, the officials were instructed to focus on property tax collection and achieve the set target by March 15.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is conducting an Early Bird scheme from April 6 to 30 facilitating five per cent rebate for building owners paying their property tax for the financial year 2019-20.

Last year, too the municipal corporation had conducted the scheme and managed to collect Rs 437.75 crore. Building owners can pay the property tax at citizen service centres, Mee-Seva, e-Seva centres, Myghmc app and online. As the 2018-19 financial year closed, the software is being updated and early bird scheme was being conducted from April 6, said GHMC Commissioner M Dana Kishore.