Even as both the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments have proposed to increase the percentage of property tax to mop up additional revenues to fill their coffers, there were reports of chief ministers of both the states not paying property tax for their official residences have surfaced.
In Andhra Pradesh, there were reports in a section of mainstream media and also in the social media that YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had not paid property tax for his official residence at Tadepalli in Amaravati for the last two years.
Within hours of the reports surfacing in the media, the Andhra Pradesh government quickly paid the property tax of Rs 70,740 to Mangalagiri-Tadepalli Muncipal Corporation.
The total property tax paid includes previous arrears to the tune of Rs 39,504 and the tax for the current year to the extent of Rs 19,752, besides interest of Rs 11,484 for the delayed payment of the arrears from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2021.
Incidentally, the Tadepalli house (Address – House No. 12-352/2/5, ParcVille 52, Ratna Katta, Revenue ward no. 12, Tadepalli -522501) is in the name of Jagan’s wife Y S Bharati Reddy.
The bungalow has now been declared as official residence of the chief minister.
Within a day of the report about property tax dues of Jagan’s Tadepalli residence surfaced, there were reports in the Telangana media about a similar non-payment of property tax by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his official bungalow – Pragati Bhavan at Begumpet.
Though the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation assessed the property tax for Pragati Bhavan since 2018-19, not a single paisa had been paid for the bungalow, which has been shown as “Chief Minister’s Campus” with address 6-3-870/A, Greenlands, Begumpet, Hyderabad in the records of GHMC, Khairatabad circle.
The CMO has to pay an amount of Rs 1,91,794 for every six months – it comes to around Rs 3,83,588 per annum. As per the records, the total arrears of property tax pending for Pragati Bhavan is around Rs 11.50 lakh for the last three years.
Along with an interest of Rs 1.68 lakh for the non-payment of tax in the last three years, the total dues pending for the CM’s bungalow is Rs 13.19 lakh.
For the current year (2021-22), the CMO has to pay another Rs 1.91 lakh by June 30 and since it was not paid before the due date, it incurs additional interest on the total arrears.
So, for four years, as per the assessment of the GHMC, the total arrears of property tax for Pragati Bhavan come to around Rs 17.06 lakh.
Since it is an official bungalow, the amount has to be cleared by the CMO from the public exchequer.
Yet, the KCR government did not bother to pay the same. It makes one wonder why the GHMC, which forces the citizens of Hyderabad to cough up the property tax under pressure every year, has remained silent on the dues for KCR’s Pragati Bhavan!