Hyderabad: 5% early bird scheme in property tax fetches 101 cr for government

Hyderabad: The five per cent rebate provided through the early bird scheme by the government has fetched a revenue of Rs 101 crore as about 2.29 lakh owners in 129 municipalities and 12 Corporations have paid property tax and got a benefit of Rs 5 crore.

The Telangana government had brought the 5% rebate scheme for the property owners in the State in April and now it has also been extended to May in the wake of corona pandemic. There are 129 municipalities and 12 corporations under the Commissioner and Directorate of Municipal Administration (CDMA) and 14.05 lakh properties are eligible under the early bird scheme and so far 2.29 lakh property owners had paid Rs 101.98 crore. The property owners collectively saved Rs 5.1 crore from the early bird scheme.

The citizens in Warangal utilised the early bird scheme to its maximum as it has stood number one in the payment of property tax. As many as 28,767 people have paid Rs 12.16 crore and Nizampet Municipal Corporation followed with Rs 6.84 crore.

In Nizamabad, Rs 4.44 crore was collected, in Dundigal Municipality Rs 3.60 crore was collected. In other municipalities the collected figure was Narsingi (Rs 2.63 crore), Manikonda (Rs 2.17 crore), Badangpet (Rs 1.19 crore), Sangareddy (Rs 2.89 Crore) etc.

The officials had brought a QR code facility to pay the property tax for the property owners. The authorities are printing QR code on demand notice of the property tax from this year in all the municipalities except for GHMC. A senior official said that the citizens need not go to the offices to pay the tax and can pay with their mobile phone. The details pertaining to the property owners would come if the QR code is scanned and after this, citizens can pay through the credit card, debit card or mobile applications and can also get online receipt. Apart from this, the authorities provided payment through WhatsApp with a special number 9000253342 and the officials said that the collections would be more in the coming days.

The Director of Municipal Administration N Satyanarayana has asked the municipal commissioner to encourage the property owners in the state to utilise the services during the next 14 days. The officials are taking up campaigns to make the citizens aware of the discount.