GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar said that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation would reach its magic figure Rs. 1111 crores by Monday.
The commissioner inspected Citizen Service Centre at Central Zone on Sunday and expressed his satisfaction over the working of GHMC Employees on a holiday i.e. on Sunday with much more dedication as the final date is soon approaching. He has informed that last year collection as on 29.03.2013 it was Rs.629 crores and GHMC could collect Rs.895.50 crores as on 29.03.2014, which is 148.5 crores more than that of last year’s total collection, i.e., Rs.747 crores.
The Commissioner said that the GHMC has taken up various steps for improving collection of property tax involving 135 special drive teams with 650 members, 37 focus teams with 116 members, 329 Bill Collectors with 1023 teams, all the Bill Collectors were given 4 to 6 persons from various wings for assistance and also to ensure that all the properties are covered and also to create awareness among the payers regarding interest waiver and modes of payment. He has also informed that there were about 760 court cases covering nearly 100 crores of demand and during the special drive, more than 200 cases have been settled.
Somesh Kumar said that two rounds of Property tax Parishkaram Programmes have been conducted in all circles and 1148 number of cases has been settled. Separate call centres have also been established and calls were made to 1,55,668 property tax payers and were requested to pay before 31.03.2014, he said. The GHMC has taken up a massive publicity drive, SMS were sent regularly to tax payers requesting them to pay before 31.03.2014, autos were engaged and voice publicity was given, banners, pamphlets, scrolling messages in TV channels, advertisements in Radio played a very vital role for improving the property tax collection, he added. He further informed that all the Citizen Service Centres will be working from 08:00am to 08:00pm including holidays for the convenience of the tax payers to pay their property tax.
The Commissioner said that the GO Ms. No.90 on interest waiver on arrears on current tax, so far 1,51,000 tax payers have been utilized this facility. He further said that special arrangements have been made for tomorrow, the last day of property tax collection being the festival of Ugadi will work till night and additional operators are deployed in the centers and even Mee Seva centers will also work up till 08:00 pm for the convenience of tax payers citizen service centers. The online payments will be accepted till 12:00 midnight. He said that the State Bank of Hyderabad managements will also work and appealed all the tax payers to avail waver benefit and pay their property tax by Monday. (INN)