GHMC finds way to check menace

Hyderabad: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials have found a way out to control the problem of underassessment of property by some officials which has been going on unabated all these years causing revenue loss to the corporation as no property owner complains of such deals.

Talking to The Hans India, the officials said that to curb such practices, the GHMC has on its own taken up a re-survey of certain properties, where the senior officials felt that they could have been underassessed.

The survey had paid dividends. Out of 3,50,695 properties, where reassessment was taken up, 1,17,262 properties were found to have been underassessed. This has helped the GHMC to get additional tax of Rs 38.69 crore, the officials said.

Officials of the revenue wing of the GHMC claim that they would now take up more such suo motu surveys. A senior official on condition of anonymity said that the average increase of property tax demand for re-assessed properties was Rs 4,500. The officials also said, according to the preliminary report, about 93 per cent properties whose property tax was decreased from Rs 1200 to Rs 101 before the GHMC elections were underassessed for which the corporation has served the notices.

The officials further said many people claim that the ground staff takes money and indulges in irregularities but in the absence of any complaint from the people, they are unable to initiate any action. However, the corporation had recently asked deputy commissioners to enquire into the matter and submit a report.

“To our surprise, deputy commissioners in their report said that nothing of that sort has been noticed", the official said.Hence the corporation was now exploring the possibility to adopt advanced methods like geo-tagging to re-assess the properties again. "We would not only take stringent action against ground staff but also levy penalty on residents if found guilty," the officials said.

-BY Maddy Deekshith