Property tax to go up from May 1
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Citizens should be prepared for a hike in property tax from May 1. Indications to this effect were given by GHMC commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu when he asked the tax wing officials to be prepared for the “general revision of property tax” to be conducted from May 1.
Addressing the tax officials at a meeting convened to review property tax status, Mr Krishna Babu asked them to raise demand notices (tax bills) for Rs 1,200 crore and try and achieve a target of at least Rs 1,000 crore in the ongoing 2012-13 financial year. Tax revision, he said, will bring in more revenue. He also instructed officials to get ready with Google maps and complete the census of block-wise residential survey in two months, starting May 1.
Mr Krishna Babu later said that under Municipal Corporation Act, property tax has to be revised every five years. With the last such revision coming for the city in 2007, one is due in 2012-13 fiscal, he said.
Specifying that a tax revision notification had been issued then, he said a similar notification has to be issued now.
A tax hike will need the approval of elected body of corporators, led by the mayor. Though local bodies do not need government permission to hike tax, civic bodies generally take approval, as tax enhancements have political implications.
Mr Krishna Babu told the officials to give a patient hearing to each taxpayer approaching them with a complaint, and take them in confidence by explaining the procedure. He also suggested a way to distribute pamphlets with details of category-wise increase in property tax to make self-assessment easy.
The GHMC commissioner directed officials to coordinate with Residents’ Welfare Associations, giving them a list of defaulters in their area so that they can interact with the residents and make them pay tax before April 30.
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