HYDERABAD: Property owners of GHMC Circles, mainly Serilingampally, Chandanagar and Moosapet, availed maximum facility of the Early Bird Scheme (EBS) provided by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) between April 1 and 30, 2024, while Chandrayangutta, Falaknuma, Santoshnagar and Karwan circles, all falling in the Old City, saw the citizens least utilising the scheme.
The EBS offered a 5% rebate only on the current financial year’s property tax (2024-25) and no rebate was given on arrears accumulating from previous years. The GHMC has collected a record Rs 826.45 crore property under EBS tax last month, where as many as 7.34 lakh taxpayers have availed the scheme. There are around 18 lakh assessments in GHMC limits and over 7.34 lakh people have paid the tax this year.
Sources said that Serilingampally circle topped the list in the EBS collection where as many as 58,455 property owners paid the tax which is to the tune of Rs 108.99 crore followed by Chandanagar circle where 50,506 property owners paid the tax, which is to the tune of Rs 52.93 crore, in Moosapet circle, around 40,219 citizens paid the property tax of around Rs 54.79 crore.
In Jubilee Hills circle, about Rs 84.42 crore was collected from 27,050 property owners. In Khairatabad circle, 30,832 persons availed the scheme and paid Rs 68.99 crore.
Circles with the lowest collection: The least GHMC circles availing the EBS facility were Chandrayangutta, Falaknuma, Santoshnagar and Karwan. In Chandrayangutta, about Rs 2.78 crore was collected where 6,717 persons utilised the scheme. In Falaknuma circle, Rs 3.11 crore was collected from around 6,892 property owners. In Santosh Nagar circle, Rs 6.05 crore was collected from 9,533 owners, in Karwan circle, Rs 8.36 crore from 11,026 property owners under the EBS scheme.
The tax was collected from various modes like Citizen Service Centre (CSCs), Bill Collectors, Mee Seva and online. Maximum of people paid their tax online. Of the 7.34 lakh paid assessments, around 5.03 lakh paid online and an amount of Rs 410.94 crore was collected. Around 83,600 paid through bill collectors (Rs 280 crore). About 74,000 assessments paid the amount CSC centres (Rs 85.85 crore) and 72,890 citizens paid through Mee Seva, Rs 48.80 crore was collected.
This year, GHMC has collected a record property tax under the EBS by surpassing the last year collections. This year, GHMC has collected `826.45 crore. Property tax collection for the year 2023-24 under EBS scheme was Rs 785.84 crore.