Hyderabad: The cash-strapped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has identified over one lakh property owners who collectively evaded tax to the tune of over Rs 100 crore, by resorting to under-assessment of their properties for several years. This came to light during the GHMC’s GIS-based survey conducted between Aug 2024 and Dec 2025, using drone imagery and high-resolution mapping.Over six lakh properties were assessed as part of the survey.The findings revealed that a majority of the under assessed properties are concentrated in Serilingampally, Chandanagar, Moosapet, Kukatpally, and LB Nagar circles—areas that witnessed rapid urbanisation, high-rise constructions, and commercial activity over the last few years.“This largely occurred between 2020 and 2023 when the GHMC allowed self assessment of properties and stopped issuing notices under Section 213 of the GHMC Act, 1955 which requires property owners to furnish detailed information about plinth area, nature of usage and sanctioned building plans for assessment or re-assessment of property tax,” said an official, adding, “The revision in rule led to a large number of property owners failing to submit updated details or disclose changes made to their properties.”Officials said most of these are commercial buildings or rental complexes with multiple tenants. While owners collected rent from several occupants, they only declared a few units for tax purposes. “In several cases, they converted residential buildings into commercial establishments without updating official records. There are also instances where the permissions were obtained for godowns but were used as retail stores instead, to pay a lower a tax,” said an official.They suspect the final count of defaulters could be much higher.“There are close to 20 lakh properties within GHMC limits. While more than one lakh under assessed properties have been identified from six lakh verifications, the number is expected to rise further as the city-wide survey continues in the coming months,” said Anurag Jayanthi, additional commissioner (IT & revenue), GHMC. He added: “We have been issuing notices to the defaulters asking them to clear dues,”BOX 1: DiscrepanciesThe discrepancies that surfaced after the GIS survey revealed deviations from approved building plans and actual structures on the ground, said civic officials. It spotted several buildings that had raised residential floors without approvals or under-reported plinth areas. In many cases, owners of large commercial buildings, often exceeding 10,000 sft, had declared them as residential properties and paid tax for just 3,000sft to 3,500 sft. “For a property that should ideally be paying Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 annually, owners were paying barely Rs 5,000, leading to massive revenue loss,” an official in taxation wing said.BOX2: Power data integrationIn a major move, GHMC also integrated Property Tax Identification Number (PTIN) data with electricity service connections from TGSPDCL, allowing officials to cross-verify property usage and occupancy patterns. Through this integration, many under-assessed properties were identified across Hyderabad. So far, 14,999 properties underwent field verification, resulting in an additional revenue collection of Rs 7.40 crore. With continued verification, the revenue recovery is expected to rise substantially, officials said.
