HYDERABAD: Residents of Secunderabad Cantonment area will have to shell out more from their pockets soon as officials of the Cantonment Board are planning to increase the property tax and other charges to meet the increasing expenditure.
While the revised budget estimates approved by the board recently stood at Rs 266 crore, revenue sources are not on par with expenditure. While collection of Rs 50-crore property tax had been estimated last year, only about Rs 30 crore was collected. Similarly, collection of water charges, rent from leases and other charges also fell short.
In this milieu, citing a mismatch between revenue and expenditure, the SCB plans to hike property tax and other charges and also take steps to ensure that all the revenue sources are exploited.
“The expenditure on development works and salaries is increasing steeply. The revenue should go up if we have to a balance budget and continue to provide proper amenities to people. There are property owners who are paying as little tax as Rs 100 even today.
Therefore, we want to review the whole tax structure and take all steps needed to ensure that revenue goes up and a transparent tax collection system is followed,” said S Keshava Reddy, vice- president of Secunderabad Cantonment Board.
Besides increasing property tax collections, the board will also focus on raising revenues from drinking water supply, hoardings and other sources.
While SCB collected about Rs 8 crore as water charges last year, a target of Rs 10 crore has been fixed for the current year. With just Rs 3.20 crore being collected on advertisement hoardings, officials also want to focus on increasing the revenue on this front. With the board determined to improve its revenues, residents have to brace themselves for a greater burden of taxes.