GHMC developing portal to bring transparency in property tax assessment details

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is looking forward to developing a portal where citizens can check their property tax assessment details. Simultaneously under development is a project to assign each building in the city with a QR (Quick-Response) code, in order to enhance transparency with regard to matters related to revenue and vigilance.

So far, property tax is being charged by the GHMC on each building in the most opaque fashion, not comprehended by majority of the owners, giving scope to a lot of corruption and irregularities, which invariably lead to legal wrangles. The demand notice generated by the GHMC does not reveal the criterion based on which the tax is being charged, and taking advantage of this, field level Revenue staff often resort to corrupt practices such as under assessment or over assessment.

“We are developing a portal, where each property holder can log in and see what the building is, what is the current tax levied, or in case of commercial buildings, trade licence fee. He or she can see the measurements as per the GIS survey, as per the Google Street View, and as per other databases available,” said Additional Commissioner (Revenue) Anurag Jayanti.

After going through the data, the owner may flag any discrepancies with the officials concerned and seek resolution. The portal will be extended to the whole tri-corporation area, consisting of GHMC, Cyberabad Municipal Corporation and Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation which together house about 30 lakh buildings, officials informed.

The QR codes, on the other hand, are to be used by the citizens for location services, and by officials to check the details about nature the buildings, status of building permission, property tax, trade licence, water connections and fire clearance, all at one go.