CIVIC BODY WARY OF TAX PAYMENT BY CHEQUE

The GHMC has decided to exercise caution while accepting property tax payments made by cheque. It will issue clearance only after the cheque amount gets credited in its account. The civic body had noticed the several owners gave cheques that bounced which caused a lot of inconvenience during audits.

An official said as many as 1,391 tax payment cheques had bounced in financial year 201617. In the earlier practice, the GHMC would mark the dues of property owners as cleared as soon as the cheque for payment was received from them, while the cheques on several occasions bounced on presentation at the bank. The field staff also entered ‘no dues’ online on receiving cheques that later bounced. This caused difficulty at the time of calculating annual property tax collection.

Owing to this, the GHMC has decided not to issue ‘no dues’ remark immediately on receiving property tax payment cheques. It will issue clearance only after the amount gets credited into its account. The status of property tax payment can be checked on GHMC’s website, officials said.