Hyderabad May See Hike In Property Tax On Non-Residential Units

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has said it is considering increasing property tax rates for commercial and non-residential property.

Of the property tax target of around Rs 1,100 crore for 2015-16, the civic body has so far collected Rs 680 crore. GHMC officers aim to collect the remaining amount, arrears and other property tax dues by the end of this month. According to The New Indian Express, 'Red notices' have already been served on defaulters.

GHMC said it was empowered to revise the property tax rates for buildings once every five years. “The tax on residential and commercial properties has not been revised since 2002 and 2007, respectively. We are planning to revise the tax and increase it to a certain level. According to the rules, property tax has to be revised once in five years,” The New Indian Express quoted GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy as saying. 

In 2002, the then Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) had proposed to enhance the tax on commercial and business establishments. But that proposal was not taken up, Reddy added. “We are trying to emulate this model after learning from the Kanpur Municipality,” the Times of India quoted Reddy as saying. After the formation of the GHMC in 2007, the revision of non-residential properties was taken up in October, 2007.

GHMC's plan is to take pictures of properties through the GPS satellite system, a method used by the Kanpur municipality in Uttar Pradesh which had earlier yielded good results.