GHMC property tax site hacked

Hyderabad: The property tax database of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) may have been hacked. Citizens have been receiving text messages asking them to clear their property tax dues, but GHMC officials are clueless about them. They say that some persons may have hacked the GHMC database, which contains information about 14 lakh assessments within the GHMC limits. Interestingly, citizens living outside the corporation limits, in adjoining areas governed by gram panchayats, have also been asked to pay their property taxes to the GHMC.

According to highly-placed sources, the corporation has shared its data with line departments including the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, and the power distribution company. It intends to integrate databases with these departments to be able to verify whether properties are being used for domestic or commercial purposes.

GHMC officials have noticed that several tax-payers who pay residential property taxes possess commercial water and electricity connections. They have tried to rationalise property taxpayers’ data by sharing their database. But the data seems to have been misused by some persons.

A senior GHMC official, on condition of anonymity, said that they were clueless about the matter. He hinted that the property tax database may have been hacked while it was being shared it with the line departments.