HYDERABAD: Mohan Reddy of Serilingampally would never have imagined turning a lakh richer overnight. His prompt payment of property tax for the year 2010-11, has helped him win the bumper prize of the lucky draw conducted by GHMC which is into its seventh year running, worth Rs 1 lakh. He paid a mere Rs 1388 as property tax which helped him net the big catch. Other big ticket winners included Sarojini R of Kapra who received the 1st prize winner of Rs 50,000 for filing her property tax worth Rs 2288 on time. There were also three winners for the second prize worth Rs 25000 each.
But taking serious note of the fact that over 50,000 citizens had filed amounts less than Rs 100 towards property tax, GHMC commissioner MT Krishna Babu, said that the next two months of April and May would be spent re-assessing the total plinth area and verification of such properties, as also those properties which had paid less than Rs 1000, to ensure the full amount was collected.
“In many of these cases (less than Rs 100) cases, the cost of collection borne by GHMC outweighs the tax paid,” he said. Many of the winners in the lucky draw were also found to be violating expected revenue figures, with people having paid a mere 110, 300 plus etc winning in excess of Rs 10,000. The Commissioner directed the officials to complete 100 per cent verification of buildings which took occupancy certificate recently.
Mayor commends tax payers
Commending the 6,87,000 prompt tax payers for adhering to law, Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain, also announced that GHMC had collected close to Rs 500 crore this fiscal as property tax, excluding the month of February, which had long crossed last year's collection figures of Rs 490 crore. “Better revenue collection will only translate into better expenditures,” he said.
The total prize amount of Rs 20 lakh was sponsored by SBH, with close to 771 people winning the lowest category prize of Rs 2000.The Mayor requested officials from SBH, to award the prompt tax payers of 2011-12 this April itself instead of waiting till next year.
Circle 10 (Khairatabad) with collection figures of Rs 18,973 crore has topped the list of highest property tax payers in the city for 2010-11 while Circle 13 (Patencheruvu) with Rs 269.19 crore is placed at the bottom.
In zone wise collection, Central Zone (comprising Khairatabad, Panjagutta etc) topped the list with Rs 51,573.14 crores while South Zone with Rs 13,548.11 crores was at the bottom of the list. In figures related to target achievement, Dy. Commissioner, Serilingampally, Circle No.12 was congratulated by the Commissioner for achieving 63.49 per cent of his target in regard to property tax collection. The next highest collections were recorded at Serilingampally South, Circle No.11 (53.86 per cent) and Kapra, Circle-1 (53.46%).