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GHMC Targets Rs. 720 Crore in Property Tax Collections

  • Without increasing property tax and through verification of under-assessed and un-assessed properties, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) draft budget for the year 2012-13 proposes to increase the property tax collections to Rs.720 crore.The overall budget estimates recommended by the Standing Committee stands at Rs.3,600 crore as against the estimate of Rs.2,934.99 crore proposed by the GHMC Commissioner, Mayor Majid Hussain told the presspersons here on Wednesday. Mr. Hussain said the budget looks at increasing revenue from building permission fees to Rs.160 crore, building development charges to Rs.75 crore and betterment charges to Rs.80 crore. Advertisement fee and hoarding charges would be revised in the next committee meeting to garner a revenue of Rs.35 crore.

  • Garbage collection fee has been proposed to be increased to Rs.12 crore with more trade licenses to be issued and LRS charges are expected to net Rs.50 crore.On the expenditure side, budget for repairs and maintenance of major roads has been put at Rs.70 crore, minor roads at Rs.65 crore and storm water drains at Rs.35 crore.Similarly, budget for construction of bridges, RoBs, RuBs, culverts, flyovers and sub-ways have been proposed at Rs.150 crore.The estimates assure Rs.175 crore for road widening, Rs.100 crore for construction and improvement of major and minor storm water drains and Rs.550 crore for construction of housing units for the poor. Also incorporated are Rs.40 crore for city and colony level parks apart from Rs.17 crore for streetlight maintenance.

  • Without enhancing tax rates, the property tax collections could go up substantially by bringing more properties into the tax net and change of use by property owners, the Mayor said.“As of December 16, 2011, total arrears of property tax from top 1,000 defaulters come to Rs.255 crore,” Mr. Hussain pointed put out, stating that taxes from properties of State and Central government undertakings could go up substantially through proper assessment and collection.The government would be approached for implementing recommendations of the Second State Finance Commission as well as the Third SFC for higher devolution of revenues and grants to GHMC.

  • “Even if a five per cent share in VAT collections is passed on, it will boost the assigned revenues by Rs.1,000 crore annually,” he said.The GHMC has to step its budget to a size of Rs.3,600 crore now and keep on increasing it substantially every year to reach at least Rs.12,000 crore in the year 2016-17.The staffing issue would also come before the Standing Committee for consideration and the staff requirement was put by the Mayor at 2,200 personnel.

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