HYDERABAD: About Rs 1,050 crore was collected by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation towards property tax for 2015-16, municipal commissioner B.Janardhan Reddy has said.
The tax collection in the previous year (2014-15) was around Rs 1,063 crore and Rs 88 crore was waived as below 1,200 properties ranging around 5,07,000 assessments. The GHMC conducted Property Tax Parishkaram on Sundays in February and March to redress grievances pertaining to property tax issues likes mutations, court cases, out-of-court settlements and vacancy remission.
The commissioner said that the team work of all the officers who had been appointed as supervisory, nodal and special officers, who had been assigned special tax collection targets, ensured that the collection reached the target. Besides, better communication and coordination among the officers via WhatsApp has helped a lot for group discussions made their task easier.
The commissioner said GHMC officials were very busy in January and February making arrangements for GHMC elections and property tax collection was tardy in the two months.
The IT wing of GHMC chipped in by sending SMS alerts to tax-payers, holding official video conferences, providing online grievance redressing platform, etc which helped the GHMC to reach the target. Heads of various government departments lent their cooperation to GHMC officials in clearing the tax dues.The commissioner also lauded the role played by resident welfare associations, corporators, citizens and NGOs in this endeavour.