For the first time, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is planning to collect advertisement fees from private buses, cabs, vans, autos and LMV vehicles for display of advertisements on their vehicles from April this year.

GHMC would collect Rs 12,000 each from mobile buses, vans and light motor vehicles, Rs 6,000 each for a cab and Rs 1,200 each from autorickshaws per annum.

Nearly 3 lakh vehicles will come into advertisement fee net and the corporation would earn revenues to the tune of Rs 25-30 crore annually from vehicle display advertisements. In GHMC limits, there are about 25,000 cabs, 1.45 lakh autos, 3,800 RTC buses, 3,000 private buses, and 15,000 buses belonging to educational institutions.

After the operationalisation of international airport at Shamshabad, several cabs and buses are displaying advertisements on which no advertisement fee was being charged by the corporation and it has decided to include in the schedule of rates.

With Metro Rail Corridors, PVNR Expressway, and Outer Ring Road (ORR) becoming high potential for advertisements, the GHMC has identified them as special category ‘S’ and going to levy hefty advertisement fee on the said stretches. All national and state highways within the GHMC limits are now classified as category ‘A’  where high advertisement fee will be levied on the basis of per square metre.

Also the GHMC has revised the advertisement fee on hoardings, bus shelters, foot-over- bridges and bus shelters by doubling them from the coming financial year. The GHMC Standing Committee which met on Thursday had approved the said proposals, GHMC officials told Express.

GHMC has decided to do away with the collection of advertisement fee on installment basis from the next financial year. The agencies who erected the hoardings have to pay 100 per cent advertisement fee in advance during March every year for the succeeding financial year instead of existing practice of collecting in four installments i.e, 40 per cent in March, 20 per cent each in May, June and July.

Further, GHMC will impose penalty if advertisement fee is not paid in March and  those who come for renewal, a penalty of 10 per cent would be levied in April, May (20 per cent), June (30 per cent) and if the boards were not renewed with penalty by June end, the same may be cancelled duly collecting the dues. GHMC has proposed to have a uniform rate for both lit and non-lit categories in view of the practical difficulties in assessing the advertisement fee, GHMC officials added.