GHMC earns `1.2cr on Early Bird plan

Hyderabad: Early Bird, the early tax payment scheme, has helped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation achieve more than 30 per cent of its target — the target being a collection of `1,200 crore —for the current financial year in one month. This covered almost 50 per cent of the property tax payers in the city. The GHMC collected `213.03crore the previous financial year, in which about 3.17lakh individuals and commercial establishments have paid the tax. This year, in the last 30 days, the GHMC collected `363.19 crore from 5.16 lakh tax payers, which is `150.16crore more than the collection the previous fiscal. GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy told DC that the Early Bird scheme helped the civic body achieve a record in tax collections in April — the first month of the current financial year. “We offered a five per cent discount under the Early Bird scheme on not only the current FY’s tax but also on arrears and penalties. The city is having 14 lakh tax payers, of which 5.44 lakh people were given exemption by the government. Under the Early Bird scheme, 5.16 lakh tax payers paid property tax. The 5.44 lakh people are under exemption of below `1,200 tax,” the commissioner said. He said the Bangalore Corporation also introduced a similar scheme but it covered only 12 per cent of the tax payers in the last 30 days. “In our city, statistics show that small tax payers have also utilized the scheme. Compared with the previous year’s statistics, about 2 lakh more taxpayers utilized the Early Bird scheme in Hyderabad,” he said.