HYDERABAD: As many as 960 commercial buildings mostly corporate hospitals, five-star hotels, function halls and shopping complexes, have been found to be evading, if not altogether at least in part, payment of property tax to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).They were found to be evading payment of up to `24 crore. GHMC Commissioner M T Krishna Babu issued directions to 18 senior officials comprising zonal commissioners, additional commissioners, joint commissioners, a chief valuation officer and others, to assess the 960 buildings assigned to them.The commercial buildings are located in the 18 circles of the GHMC. Each building owner was found to be paying property tax of up to `5 lakh and above annually and total annual collection from them was coming to around `6 crore.While assessing the properties, the senior officials found that most of the property owners did not include the plinth area and specify the usage of the land. Consequently, it was discovered that the tax levied on the buildings was much lesser than it should be. After rectifying the anomalies, the property tax increased by `30 crore. In some cases, some property owners were found to have been charged well above the actual amount of tax. Once the properties are assessed correctly, the net additional revenue to the corporation is going to be the tune of Rs 24 crore annually from these 960 buildings, the GHMC Commissioner told City Express.The GHMC will assess the properties of those building owners who are paying property tax between `3-5 lakh every year afresh. By rectifying the anomalies such as usage of the land area, plinth area, under assessed properties, the corporation is expecting the total revenue collection to touch `1,000 crore during the current financial year, Krishna Babu said.The GHMC has divided the entire corporation area into 600 Census Blocks. Each Bill Collector will be given two blocks by giving boundaries of the areas for enumeration of the houses. There are 300 Bill Collectors in GHMC.
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