Several residents who availed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s Early Bird scheme, and paid their property taxes online in April, were in for a shock with the status of their tax still showing as ‘pending’.
Residents have been forced to repeatedly visit local GHMC offices and banks to rectify instances of payment glitches. For instance, a resident in Moula Ali, who paid property tax for four of his apartments, found that only one of them went through while the status for the rest showed as ‘pending’.
Sri Latha, a resident of Jubilee Hills claimed that she had paid her property tax on April 23 and later she received a message on her mobile phone that pending arrears remained the same.
The bigger concern for property taxpayers, who paid during the Early Bird scheme (in April), is whether they will still be eligible for the 5% rebate under the scheme. “My main concern now is if the payment didn’t go through, and even if I get back the refund, does that mean I won’t be eligible for the rebate under the scheme? Officials must clarify,” Latha told .
Another woman resident from Mothinagar too faced the same issue as she received a message on her phone and upon checking the status online, she found that she still owed, 2,563 despite paying online.
Official sources said that the problem has been encountered for few online payments and that they are rectifying the issue. “There are a few technical glitches which our IT wing has already rectified and there is no need for panic as most of the property taxpayer’s issues have already been resolved,” a GHMC official from the revenue wing told.
During April, GHMC collected 742.41 crore from over 6.5 lakh people across the city. Out of which, 4.78 lakh of them paid online which generated 333 crore for the civic body.