The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) which had a windfall in the form of high property tax collections during the month of April had the maximum collections coming in from the Khairtabad-2 circle.
After announcing an early bird offer of 5 per cent rebate for those paying the property tax in April, the civic body netted a total of Rs.109.53 crore in the month which happens to be Rs.78.93 crore more than the collections during the same period last year. In the year 2013-14, the total collections stood at a meagre Rs.30.59 crore.
Of the 18 circles of the GHMC, Khairatabad-2 topped the list, collecting Rs.27.39 crore which is Rs.18.59 crore more than the previous year’s April transactions. Kukatpally circle with Rs.10.86 crore, Secunderabad with Rs.9.54 crore and Abids-2 circle with Rs.8.73 crore are the other toppers in the list.
Ramachandrapuram circle with property tax collection of Rs.85 lakhs stood at the bottom of the list along with Charminar-2 with Rs.1.69 crore and Rajendranagar with Rs.1.96 crore.
“The rebate offer which actually worked out for just 20 days since it was announced on April 9, got us Rs.78.93 crore more than last April. This high transaction happened during the busy election period when most of our staff were not actually going to field for collections,” said an official.
Since most of them were drafted for poll related duties during the last month, bill collectors could only net Rs.2.46 crore but interestingly, most property owners queued up at Citizen Service Centres of the civic body to pay taxes to the tune of Rs.60.39 crore and visited Mee Seva Centres to pay another Rs.32.43 crore.
