Singireddy faults amendments to property tax

In order to curtail illegal and unauthorised constructions and buildings in the city, the AP State Legislature had passed an amendment namely, 220-A, which incorporated stringent provisions of levying property tax penalties on unauthorised buildings.

But, according to Singireddy Srinivas Reddy, TDP floorleader, GHMC, this amendment has done more harm than good. Recently, he had written a letter to the chief secretary, which elucidated on the ill-effects of this amendment. He said, “The attitude of politicos, bureaucrats and white-collar officials is very dismissive towards the provisions of the amendment 220-A of the GHMC Act. This attitude is in turn penalising the common man more than required with additional tax being levied on building deviations. The common man is paying the penalty through his nose, whereas the higher-end crowd escape scathe-free.”

Further on he said, the common man pays property tax with a very regressive attitude as the GHMC cannot match the expectations of the people. “There are many bad roads, open catchments and other problems which are to be catered to, with the people’s money. But without operating on those problems if the GHMC raises the tax rates in terms of penalties, it is an unjust move. The BRS programme received a good response from the people. But the same cannot be said about the GHMC’s execution,” added Singireddy.