GHMC to target tax defaulters

On Saturday, at the GHMC ordinary meeting, Mir Zulfequar Ali, MIM corporator, said, “It is very evident that only 20% of the population in Hyderabad pays their property tax, while the GHMC cares a hoot for the rest 80%. Every ounce of money has been levied from this apparent 20% population. While they are being harassed for late payments, the officials are unable to collect taxes for the last three years from 2,45,143 properties belonging to the top brass of the society totalling up to Rs 631 crore.”

Somesh Kumar, GHMC Commissioner, has suggested various measures to collect property tax from defaulters. A few of the methods proposed are: issuing red notices to top defaulters, issuing distraint warrants (authorities can secure your property) to top defaulters, disconnecting essential services.

And from then on, it gets really aggressive. GHMC authorities would also go to the extent of making announcements in the colonies and would give scrolls on TV channels. If these are not enough, they will also display the list of properties with flexi boards in the junctions and also on the website.

All these activities would be conducted by a special officer who would be appointed in each circle, to pursue the property tax defaulter.

So why is the GHMC going to harass the public?

Back in April, after the GHMC collected a record property tax of more than Rs 750 crore, the corporation announced its intent to catch hold of the chronic defaulters of about five lakh owners. In the same discussion, the top brass promised to pay incentives to early tax payers. But due to lack of clarity among the officials, the 5 % incentives for early tax payers never materialised.

In November, when Somesh Kumar took over, another apparent historic decision was taken. The Commissioner and the standing committee promised to give incentives to the revenue staff, based on their performance. Briefing about the incentive structure, the Commissioner said that for Deputy Municipal Commissioners, Valuation Officers, Tax Inspectors and Bill Collectors, two months basic pay would be paid as incentive if they collect 50% more than last year’s collection, 1.5 month’s basic pay for 40% increase et al.

The Commissioner further briefed the committee about his goal for collecting taxes for the year 2013-14 and said that Rs 1,250 crore would be the target fixed for the financial year. Here again, the tax collectors were unable to perform as per the expectations. Therefore another revision was made.

Under Section 281-A of the GHMC Act, an officer or employee of the corporation entrusted with the collection of taxes, would be penalised if they were unable levying taxes from defaulters.

On an estimate, the three years pending tax to be levied from VIP areas where key government officials, bureaucrats and politicos reside, is almost half of GHMC’s target for this financial year. The most infuriating aspect: tax defaulters in these areas have over 100 safai karamcharis in each division and have the best roads to pass through.

Very evidently, last week, PSN Murthy Greater Hyderabad City Council Secretary, CPI (M), alleged that the GHMC authorities were showing a sizable bias towards VIPs when it came to sanitation.

He said that 2,174 workers were allotted in circle-10 which was only 80km long, while 1,988 workers were allotted to Circle-4 which is 425km long