HYDERABAD: Believe it or not! As many as 1,21,640 properties constructed without permission, unregistered properties (notarised) and those built on endowment, Wakf and Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) lands have been escaping the property tax net of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for years together.
Because of non-payment of property tax on such a staggering number of properties, GHMC has been losing revenue of `50 crore annually. Faced with financial crisis, it approached the TS government to issue orders and allow it to collect property tax from these 1.21 lakh properties.
The deputy commissioners of GHMC circles have been asked to prepare the list of properties which came up on government, endowment, wakf lands, water bodies etc for levying property tax on them. GHMC officials said that mere payment of property tax does not guarantee property rights to individuals who built illegal houses on notified lands and water bodies. GHMC is levying tax only on construction part but not on lands, they clarified.
ENCROACHMENTS: As per a survey carried out by GHMC staff in all five zones, nearly 49,240 buildings have been constructed on government lands and the anticipated property tax on them, if levied, would have been about `12.25 crore. And, 788 properties have come up on ULC lands with a potential property tax of around `35.50 lakh.
As many as 52,934 private lands are registered as notarised properties which could have fetched a tax revenue of `16.50 crore. Besides, there are 1,338 structures built on endowment lands which could yield a tax of `6.64 crore.
Similarly, 8,111 constructions have come up on Wakf lands, mostly in the South Zone areas and the anticipated tax dues are to the tune of `1.21 crore. Likewise, 3,036 constructions have come up at the full tank level of encroached water bodies and around `86 lakh tax could be realised from them.
Another 1,500 properties have been constructed by encroaching the storm water drains (nalas) and `1.25 crore property tax can be accrued from them. Besides all those, 4,713 buildings were constructed in different categories that could fetch the GHMC `1.45 crore in property tax