Hyderabad corporation makes windfall tax collection

In a record of sorts, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) collected Rs 48.8 crore by 8 PM today as people rushed to pay the property tax with the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Telangana Minister for Municipal and Urban Development K T Rama Rao had yesterday said the Centre had accepted his suggestion to allow citizens to pay their arrears for essential services with the demonetised currency.
Arrangements were made today to allow people to pay the tax till midnight at offline centres of citizen services in the city besides in the gram panchayats and municipalities.
"Those who have old notes are coming to make the payment of property tax. We expected Rs 40 crore in collection (by the end of the day), but by 6 PM itself we had collected Rs 40 crore and the total is likely to cross Rs 60 crore by midnight," a GHMC official told PTI.

Normally such a huge collection, to the tune of Rs 90-100 crore, is made on the last day of financial year.