Telangana: Poll sop hits civic bodies

Hyderabad: The ruling pre-election property tax waiver sop extended by the ruling TRS is proving costly for municipalities in TS.

Ahead of the recent GHMC, Khammam and Warangal municipal elections, the TRS government waived off property tax arrears and penalty amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees. This prompted the party cadre to spread word in other municipalities that the waiver would be extended to all the civic bodies soon and prompting people not to pay property tax.

While the government had set a target of Rs 232 crore property tax collection in 67 municipalities, just Rs 150 crore has been realised even after the completion of financial year 2015-16.

Even the GHMC struggled to cross the Rs 1,000 crore mark against last year’s Rs 1,200 crore. With this, all the municipalities have plunged into financial crisis due to poor collections since property tax remains the major revenue earner for them.

Despite officials taking up special drives to meet tax collection targets, there has been no improvement, with people shying away from paying tax anticipating waiver sooner or later. Barring GHMC, the other 67 municipalities could meet just 65 per cent of the target.

The situation is worse in some municipalities like Huzurnagar and Kodad in Nalgonda district, which recorded just 20 per cent collection. Bhoopalapally municipality in Warangal and Ibrahimpatnam municipalities witnessed just 25 per cent collection while Peddapally municipality in Karimnagar was at 30 per cent.

The dismal collections prompted municipal minister K.T. Rama Rao to refute reports of property tax arrears in all municipalities being waived off. “We are aiming for 100 per cent tax collection in all municipalities and panchayats,” Mr Rao said.