It may sound unbelievable but it is a fact. As many as 1,56,890 commercial establishments in the twin cities are running without trade licence and another 22,220, instead of being in the commercial tax net, are in residential property tax net.
This was revealed by GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar during a orientation training programme for bill collectors, tax inspectors, advertisement inspectors, licensing officers, valuation officers, deputy municipal commissioners and zonal commissioners held recently.
Because of this, the corporation is losing huge revenues in the form of trade licence fee running into a few hundred crores of rupees every year.
Alarmed by the discovery, the GHMC has decided to take up a survey on trade licences in Hyderabad and Secunderabad as per directions of the Lokayukta.
It has called for expression of interest from agencies for conducting the survey in the core areas of the city.
It will entrust the work in Circles No. 4,5,7,8,9,10 and 18 to private agencies. The Lokayukta directed the GHMC to complete the entire survey work by December 30.
The surveyors will fill the information about the trader in a form prescribed by the corporation and take the photos of the shops and establishments concerned and to upload the same in the computer system.
The survey report has to be uploaded on daily basis in the concerned circles with the existing departmental data entry operators under the supervision of the licensing inspectors and assistant licence officers, licences officers concerned.
As per the available data, there are 1,19,000 commercial establishments in the core area of GHMC.