‘No Due’ cert rule rakes in over Rs 20 cr for ULBs in three days

Hyderabad: The elections to the civic bodies are filling in coffers of the municipalities and corporations in the state as the municipal administration department has received over Rs 20 crore in the form of property tax dues in the span of just three days including a whooping Rs 8 crore from one individual in Nizamabad Corporation.

Though the urban local bodies take up drives to encourage the citizens to pay their property taxes offering discounts but it was ultimately one election clause which made the people with over dues to line up before the offices to clear. As per rules, candidates aspiring to contest the polls and individuals proposing their nominations should not have any pending dues to the municipality, including property tax, tap water tax, or any other municipal taxes. This rule proved beneficial to the municipalities as the candidates along with their proposers were lined up before the civic bodies to clear their dues.

According to a senior official in the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA), during the three days of nomination spree from January 28 to 30, the urban local bodies got Rs 20.15 crore. In Nizamabad Corporation alone one candidate had to shell out Rs 8 crore to get the no due certificate for getting the nomination accepted.

The candidate from Congress Katipalli Shamantha Reddy and her husband K Narender Reddy in Division 19 had to pay about Rs 8 crore in pending municipal tax dues to the no due certificate. She had cleared dues for a hotel property. The dues had reportedly accumulated due to a long-standing dispute over property tax assessment that was pending in the High Court.

As many as 12,944 candidates are in fray for the 2,996 wards in the 123 urban local bodies and because of the no due certificate rule, each and every ULB had received Rs 6 to 8 lakh in the form of property tax from the candidates.

While the Nizamabad Municipal Corporation got highest tax dues of Rs 8.68 crore, the other municipalities like Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation got Rs 89.10 lakhs, Kothagudem Corporation got Rs 69.24 lakhs, Karimnagar Corporation Rs 59.25 lakhs, Khammam Corporation Rs 56.02 lakhs, Siddipet Rs 45.08 lakhs, Mancherial Corporation rs 37.66 lakhs, Gaddapotharam Rs 31.39 lakhs and Mahabubnagar Corporation got Rs 29.70 lakhs.

There were at least 20 Municipalities received money ranging from Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 30 lakhs. There were 38 municipalities which got money ranging between Rs 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs. There were 61 municipalities which got between Rs one lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

The officials said that they were also surprised to see the huge response to pay the property tax by the candidates. However, they wanted the citizens to utilize the facilities provided by the government like early bird incentive and other facilities like waiver of interest on property tax etc. and help the ULBs to provide better services to citizens.