The New Indian Express 06.04.2013
on DDs, cash and other mode of hassle-free payments. | EPS/File
About 300 cheques for Rs 2 crore issued by house owners towards
payment of property tax to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation
for the recently- ended financial year 2012-13 have bounced.
The
GHMC has decided to initiate legal action against the ratepayers whose
cheques bounced. In the meanwhile, it has engaged a private consultant
to recover money from the defaulters.
GHMC is contemplating not to entertain cheques hereafter and to insist on DDs, cash and other mode of hassle-free payments.
Besides
lack of sufficient funds in their bank accounts, several cheques
bounced due to incomplete signatures, overwriting and corrections to
signatures without making counter-signatures. The bankers rejected such
cheques.
Speaking to Express, additional commissioner (finance) K
Ashok Reddy said the consultant would serve notices on the owners,
whose cheques bounced, under the Negotiable Instruments Act. A
15-day-time will be given to them to clear their dues with penal
interest. If they fail to do so within 15 days, criminal cases will be
registered against them for issuing cheques which were dishonoured for
lack of funds in their bank accounts.
Actually, 2,414 cheques to
the tune of Rs 9.10 crore bounced but, after stern warnings, the
corporation recovered over Rs 7 crore from 2,162 property-owners.
A
few hundred more cheques, which were issued on the last day (March 31)
of the financial year, are yet to be cleared. GHMC will wait for a few
more days for their clearing and credit of the money into its account.
GHMC anticipates bouncing of some more cheques.
years since 2009-10 nearly 12,600 cheques, issued for Rs 43 crore
towards payment of property tax to the GHMC, have bounced. Of that, the
civic body has been able to recover Rs 33 crore from about 11,000
defaulters through the consultant.
