The Hindu 17.08.2013
Civic body eyes higher property tax revenue
Government asks civic body to reassess properties in the twin cities for revised tax
The government has directed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to reassess properties in the twin cities for revised tax at the earliest, considering that self-assessment of property tax was carried out 15 years ago.
Principal Secretaries of the Department of Municipal Administration & Urban Development S.K. Joshi and Adhar Sinha on Friday held a review meeting on the GHMC works where they directed officials to bring each and every property under the tax net by utilising the services of various functionaries.
In his presentation, GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu said that 330 bill collectors and 50 tax inspectors were involved in collecting the tax. Till August 7, the collection has been Rs. 288.81 crore compared to Rs. 245.52 crore during the corresponding period last year, i.e., around Rs. 43.29 crore more, he said.
The Principal Secretaries assured the GHMC on settling issues such as recovery of service tax from Railways and other departments and speedy release of the funds promised by the government. Mr. Krishna Babu was also asked to take up the much delayed Charminar Pedestrianisation Project immediately.
All the field-level functionaries utilising the services of Off Site Real Time (OSRT) system were directed to capture the functions of the corporation and upload the information on GHMC website, irrespective of their department.
Responding to a request for a separate tribunal for Town Planning, the senior officials observed that there should be a single integrated tribunal to sort out various issues of GHMC instead of having one for each subject.
