Against a target of collecting Rs.1,464 crore for 2014-15 towards property tax in the city, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has crossed Rs.550 crore and hopes to be able to surpass last year’s collections.
The civic body, which in the year 2012-13 was able to generate a revenue of only Rs.740 crore, last year scaled up the collection through various measures and campaigns to Rs.1,022 crore that included Rs.62 crore collected for government properties. This leap in tax collections resulted in the GHMC Commissioner and Special Officer, Somesh Kumar, setting an ambitious target of Rs.1,464 crore this year. “We are touching around 40 per cent of the target and usually high collections are made in the last two months of February and March. So, by March-end we hope to be able to cross Rs.1,200 crore,” an official said. As on January 12, property tax collection across all the five circles stood at Rs.533 crore while the tax amount realised from the government worked out to more than Rs.25 crore. “Compared to last year till this period, the amount collected is five per cent more,” he pointed out. Among the five zones, leading the tax collection table is the central zone with Rs.204 crore as against a target of Rs.632 crore followed by the west zone with Rs.150 crore against a target of Rs.295 crore. The north zone target being Rs.248 crore, the tax revenue generated here is Rs.84 crore.
