The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has had its cash registers ringing for the past three months, with property tax collection racing towards Rs 1000 crore, which is a record collection for the first quarter of any fiscal year.

Between April and June, the civic body collected a record Rs 929.22 crore from property tax. The tax was collected from 9,08,341 assessments, and by the end of July, the collections will cross the Rs 1000 crore mark.

In fact, within five days, Rs 6.13 crore had been collected. There is a visible jump in GHMC’s property tax collections compared to the first quarter of previous years. From April to June 2020, the tax collected was Rs 682 crore, while in 2021, it was Rs 620 crore.

In April this year, Rs 741.35 crore was collected under GHMC’s Property Tax Early Bird Scheme, while Rs 71.45 crore was collected in May. In June, Rs 116.42 crore was collected, taking the total to Rs 929.22 crore.

Incidentally, on April 28, when the Property Tax Early Bird Scheme was underway, over Rs 50 crore was collected, which is, to date, the highest tax collected in a single day. Property owners availed of the scheme by paying online by visiting the GHMC website, through GHMC Citizen Services Centres, MeeSeva Centres, and bill collectors. The highest tax collection was from the Serilingampally circle, followed by Jubilee Hills and Khairatabad.

One reason for high tax collection was the fact that many businesses recovered post-pandemic, and they could make payments online.