HYDERABAD: With just a few days left for the 2023–24 financial year to end, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has employed a new measure to collect arrears from property tax defaulters in the twin cities. After serving notices didn’t increase collections, the civic body has started issuing ‘distress warrants’ on the tax defaulters having arrears from previous years.
In several GHMC circles, tax officials have started sealing the commercial properties and shops and attaching the movable properties of defaulters after doing the panchanama.
As of Tuesday, the GHMC has identified over 4.80 lakh defaulters having arrears to the tune of over Rs 600 crore. The civic body has set a target of Rs 685 crore under the One Time Scheme (OTS) facility. It has so far collected Rs 77 crore. The balance amount of Rs 605 crore has to be collected in the next 10 days before the end of the financial year, sources said.
GHMC officials said nearly four lakh notices were served against defaulters in the past weeks. It has started executing ‘distress warrants’ under Section 269 of the GHMC Act as many property owners of commercial properties were not coming forward to pay pending tax despite a waiver of interest of 90% on arrears. This was in addition to issuing notices and giving one-week time.
The officials said that once the owners fail to respond to notices in the given time frame, the tax authorities seal the premises or seize the goods and possessions of the defaulters.
The deputy municipal commissioners and tax inspectors have been instructed to issue distress warrants who have arrears above Rs 1 lakh and attach the properties to recover the dues.