Hyderabad: BRS applicants decide own property tax

Hyderabad: Defaulters who applied under Building Regularisation Scheme can decide their property tax payments. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials, instead of  conducting field inspections, were assessing the properties applied for under BRS while sitting at a table. 

The corporation officials, without verifying any deviations on the field level, have been levying property tax based on the deviation prescribed in the BRS application. 

According to highly placed sources, the corporation has been blindly following the deviations prescribed by the BRS applicants and levying property tax according to the percentage of these deviations. The corporation officials were only focusing on revenue generation rather than unauthorised constructions.

Sources said that the GHMC officials did not even make a single field visit to verify either  the deviations or unauthorised structures from the BRS applicants. The corporation has done ‘table verification,’ verified for 5,296 properties in east zone, 4,639 properties in south zone, 4,155 properties in central zone, 7,433 properties in west zone and 4,846 properties in north zone. It has also collected property tax of '4.92 crore from east zone, '1.98 crore from south zone, '16.80 crore from central zone, '7.05 crore from west zone and '2.60 crore from north zone. 

When asked about this,  a senior GHMC official told Deccan Chronicle that due to a severe staff crunch they have not been  verifying the properties applied for under BRS. The officials said the GHMC has been levying 50 per cent penalty for deviating from the  building plan by 20 per cent and collecting 100 per cent penalty for all unauthorised structures. 

The official said that the GHMC will generate at least '50 to '100 crore for 1.21 lakh unauthorised structures applied for under the BRS scheme. The official also said that the penalties will be levied from the financial year 2014-15. When asked about levying penalties after regularisation, he clarified that the GHMC will only levy penalties until the High Court verdict to regularise the structures applied under BRS. 

“The GHMC would not levy any penalty after the regularisation,” the official added.

The corporation has received as many as  1.21 lakh BRS applications. Of the 1.121 lakh BRS applications, the corporation has made ‘table verification’ for  69,827 structures.  Of them, 26,369 were newly- constructed  properties. The corporation till now has generated Rs 34 crore pertaining to property tax from unauthorised structures.