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Clear tax dues for road repairs, streetlights
In a move fraught with the risk of tarring taxpayers and defaulters with the same brush, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is contemplating to introduce a rule under which it may not even take up works like repair of roads and streetlights etc., unless 90 percent of the people in the area concerned have cleared their property tax dues.
​Hyderabad: In a move fraught with the risk of tarring taxpayers and defaulters with the same brush, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is contemplating to introduce a rule under which it may not even take up works like repair of roads and streetlights etc., unless 90 percent of the people in the area concerned have cleared their property tax dues.
According to sources in GHMC, the corporation proposes to hand over the list of property tax defaulters to residential welfare associations (RWAs), colony welfare associations and others, asking them to collect property tax before seeking developmental activities in those areas.
The GHMC claims that the decision would help in making local associations active partners in the development of the city and will also help the corporation to net more revenues for providing better amenities to the citizens.
The sources said that presidents and secretaries of RWAs would be given the list of defaulters and asked to request the defaulters to clear their property taxes. Local pressure would help in making the residents pay taxes on time, the sources added.
A senior GHMC official, requesting anonymity, told The Hans India that the civic body had been aiming to achieve a target of collecting at least 80 per cent of the property tax dues. However, the proposal has already come in for sharp criticism from political parties.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist city unit secretary M Srinivas said: "How can the civic body make RWAs responsible for not clearing property tax dues of defaulters living in their respective areas?
He termed the decision as unfair and said GHMC could not make taxpayers suffer for the fault of defaulters. There were many influential people in various colonies who had not cleared property tax dues for years.
A leader of MIM leader, who preferred anonymity, said that the civic would face adverse reaction. It could not take unilateral decision without discussing it at the general body or standing committee meeting.
Greater Hyderabad BJP president B Venkat Reddy, while welcoming the decision, sought to know what the GHMC proposed to do with defaulters in the Old City.
He demanded the GHMC to give statistics of property tax collections for the past 10 years and check the percentage of defaulters in the Old City and elsewhere.
He said that due to financial crunch the civic body was looking for an excuse to avoid developmental works, he said.
