Hyderabad, Feb 21: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Friday seized a star hotel in upscale Banjara Hills for failing to pay property tax. Star hotel in Hyderabad seized over non-payment of property tax GHMC officials said the management of Taj Banjara failed to clear the dues amounting to Rs 1.43 crore despite several notices.
As the hotel failed to pay dues even after issuing ‘Red notice’ the civic authorities moved to seize the building located on Road Number 3, Banjara Hills. According to GHMC officials, the hotel management has not paid the property tax for two years. Following the GHMC action, the hotel management conveyed that the dues will be cleared by the end of the day.
The GHMC officials said they would act tough to collect the property tax from defaulters They made it clear that they will not hesitate to seize properties to recover the dues. The GHMC has to collect property tax dues of Rs 9,800 crore from property owners in GHMC limits.
For the current financial year, the civic body has set a target of Rs. 2,200 crore property tax and the collections till last month were Rs. 1,400 crore. Out of 23 lakh buildings in GHMC limits, the owners of only 12 lakh pay property tax promptly.
During the previous financial year, the GHMC collected Rs.320 crore property tax from 1.08 lakh buildings. GHMC Commissioner K. Ilambarithi has directed the officials to take all necessary measures to recover property tax dues.
As part of these efforts, the GHMC is planning to once again implement the One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme. GHMC on Thursday announced that it will conduct ‘Property Tax Parishkaram’ every Saturday between February 22 and March 29 at all its circle offices, in order to resolve long-pending property tax issues.
The grievance redressal programme, to be held between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., will address matters such as tax issues, revision petitions, corrections in property tax assessments, payments via bill collectors/RTGS, clearing online arrears, court case resolutions, IGRS issues, self-assessment, and other tax-related matters.
IANS