Live
- Safe Stay Audit programme for IT and ITES sector launched
- AP CM Chandrababu meets union ministers in Delhi, to visit Mumbai today
- Ponnam warns against negative propaganda of ongoing survey
- Hyderabad: Enumerators jotting down details with pencil nettles families in city
- First Lokmanthan event in South India to be held in city: Kishan
- Allegro R & D centre in city will generate 500 jobs: Min Sridhar
- Revanth braces for grand public meeting in Warangal on Nov 19
- Grand Celebration of MB Church Women’s Revival Conference The women of the MB Church
- Vemulawada Temple Development: Does the TG Endowments Minister want to write her own Agama Shastras for temples?
- Coop banks play key role in economic development
House tax arrears in RR, Medchal mount to RS 100 cr
Gram Panchayats (GPs) under Ranga Reddy and Medchal districts have huge dues in the form of house tax defaulters in this financial year (including arrears). The dues are half of the total amount of dues of all the GPs in the State.This was revealed in a report released by the Panchayat Raj department.
Hyderabad: Gram Panchayats (GPs) under Ranga Reddy and Medchal districts have huge dues in the form of house tax defaulters in this financial year (including arrears). The dues are half of the total amount of dues of all the GPs in the State.This was revealed in a report released by the Panchayat Raj department.
Highlights:
- Total GPs 8,695 in the State
- House tax levied on 8,421 GPs
- GPs of 30 districts (sans Hyd) have dues to the tune of Rs 230 cr
- GPs of Khammam district have Rs 21 cr dues
- GPs of Sanga Reddy have Rs 19 cr dues
- About five districts face more than Rs 5 cr dues
While all the Gram Panchayats under 30 districts (excluding Hyderabad) have dues to the tune of Rs 230 crore, the GPs under Ranga Reddy and Medchal districts alone have dues worth Rs 100 crore. While 78 GPs of Medchal district have total dues of Rs 52.22 crore, Ranga Reddy district with 428 GPs has Rs 55.19 crore dues, the report said.
Gram Panchayats of Khammam district have dues worth Rs 21 crore, GPs under Sangareddy district have dues worth Rs 19 crore and about five districts have dues worth more than Rs 5 crore due to no proper system for collection of house tax. The house tax is the main source of revenue for Gram Panchayats to meet the routine expenditure.
Out of the total 8,695 Gram Panchayats in the State, house tax has been levied on 8,421 GPs and as many as 40 lakh households have been charged for this financial year. The total demand for house tax is Rs 233 crore at the end of November this year.
Collection of house tax was always met with problems in the State as there was no proper mechanism in place to collect taxes in the villages. Apart from that, political influence of leaders in the villages also deters the tax collection in time. Many Gram Panchayats are yet to collect the dues for the previous financial years and several villages have more than Rs 5 lakh dues.
In Ranga Reddy district, some villages have more than Rs 1 crore dues to be collected. Few villages of Medchal district have dues up to Rs 4 crore. As these two districts are abutting to Hyderabad, the value of the house taxes is quite high. Sangareddy district is close to Hyderabad and the house tax values are high here, the report said.
Though the State government focused on house tax collections regularly in the beginning, it has weakened in this financial year, if the dues are of any indication. The financial year will end in next three and half months and most of the panchayats are far away from their targets. The uncollected dues of the present year would become arrears for the next financial year.
Due to no proper tax collection system in place, the villages have been forced to depend on the State government to meet their routine expenditure like payment of street light bills, salaries for the sanitation staff, and water supply schemes.
