Bowing down to extensive protests by consumers, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Water Board have decided to reduce the hike effected in property tax for commercial establishments and domestic water tariff in the city.
Incidentally, ruling Congress legislators and ministers had also joined the protest by residents of the twin-cities, who sent multiple pleas demanding a rollback of the “unprecedented hikes”. GHMC’s four to five-fold hike in property tax kicked in from April 1, 2011. Further, in its effort to rake up funds, the corporation also levied a 25 per cent unauthorised construction (UC) penalty on all buildings, including on buildings that had been regularised. For instance, a shop owner in Ranigunj, Secunderabad, who earlier paid Rs 1,322 in property tax each year, was levied a tax of Rs 5,464 per annum post-hike.
This comprised property tax of Rs 4,108, library cess of Rs 329 and Rs 1,027 in the form of 25 per cent unauthorised construction penalty. Following protests and submission of regularisation certificate, the house owner got relief from UC penalty. However, GHMC officials refused to lower the property tax, reasoning that they had no such instruction from the government.
“We have received several petitions for revision of property tax. We are going through those,” a senior GHMC official in Secunderabad said. Another shocker for the residents came late last year when the Water Board brought most domestic consumers into the commercial category for buildings with shops and offices within their premises. The Board ignored their plea that municipal water is hardly used by these tenants. This led to four to five-fold increase in domestic water tariff from December 2011.
Residents, who till then paid a monthly water tariff ranging between Rs 240 and Rs 300 for each half-inch connection, got bills amounting to Rs 800 to Rs 900 in December, leading to extensive protests.
Following this, the water cess was lowered by half for many.