It is not just the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), other much smaller Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across Telangana, that have done well in collecting advance property tax under the ‘Early Bird Scheme’ (EBS) where 5% discount was given for citizens who paid between April 1 and 30.
By mopping up ₹40.85 crore in all the 72 urban bodies, the Department of Municipal Administration & Urban Development has nearly doubled the collection for 2018-19 in the first month of the financial year as it was ₹21.26 crore the previous year, that is, 2017-18. Actually, it has been a remarkable rise in the last couple of years as the figures stand at ₹2.3 crore in 2016-17 and just ₹21.76 lakh the year before. On the other hand, the GHMC had netted ₹437.75 crore in EBS this year against ₹368.30 last year.
Data sourced by the Commissioner & Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA), which oversees the functioning of the municipal bodies other than that of the twin cities, shows that there has been an increase in the number of property tax assessments.
For instance, in 2017-18, the tax collection has about ₹328 crore from the demand of ₹360 crore raised for the 12,13,217 properties or 91.25% mopped up with balance amount being ₹31.5 crore. The corresponding figure for the previous year of 2016-17 has been 11,79,201 properties with the total collection coming to about ₹285 crore or about 86.08% with the balance amount remaining ₹46 crore.
Despite most municipal bodies lacking full-fledged municipal commissioners and being administered through ad hoc appointments through sanitary supervisors or engineers, 67 of them had managed to collect up to 80% of the targeted property tax collection.
In fact, the number of municipal bodies which has notched 100% collection has increased to 15 — Peerazadiguda, Boduppal, Kamareddy, Ibrahimpatnam, Kothagudem, Sircilla, Meerpet, Shadnagar, Korutla, Armoor, Metpally, Huzurabad, Madhira, Badepally and Dubbaka.
Up to 29 ULBs managed 95% collection and these are: Yellandu, Jalpally, Sadasivapet, Tandur, Nizamabad, Bellampally, Jangaon, Pedda Amberpet, Khammam, Huzuranagar, Medak, Nirmal, Husnabad, Medchal, Adilabad, Siddipet, Gajwel, Bhongir, Palwancha, Badangpet, Bhainsa, Peddapalli, Bodhan, Suryapet, Jillelaguda, Nagarkurnool, Khagaznagar, Kalwakurthy and Mahabubnagar.
Another 14 municipalities had collected between 90-95% and they are: Mandamarri, Devarakonda, Manuguru, Miryalaguda, Vikarabad, Kodad, Gadwal, Mancherial, Ramagundam, Karimnagar, Narsampet, Jammikunta, Jagitial and Andole-Jogipet. Nine of them collected 90-80% and they are Sangareddy, Achampet, Sathupally, Vemulawada, Warangal, Parkal, Mahabubabad, Kollapur and Zaheerabad. The laggards are Narayanguda, Wanaparthy, Nalgonda, Leeja and Bhulpalpally.
