The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has got a windfall of about ₹3,000 crore, as its share from the stamp duty collected by the Telangana Registrations and Stamps department, which had been pending for nearly six years.
The corporation is prioritising the clearance of pending bills from the unexpected bounty, which is transferred to the GHMC’s personal deposit account. Whenever bills are raised, the corresponding amount would be released from the account to the corporation’s general fund.
“We have recently released ₹251 crore via TREDS for clearance of the contractors’ bills from 2023-24 and 2024-25. We will repay the TREDS by raising bills for the funds received from Registrations department,” a highly placed official informed.
TREDS is an acronym for the Trade Receivables Electronic Discounting System, which is an online platform floated by the Reserve Bank of India that helps MSMEs get working capital in lieu of their outstanding receivables.
Stamps and Registrations Department collects surcharge on stamp duty during registration of the properties, 95% of which is to be transferred to the respective local bodies. With skyrocketing property values in the four districts that contribute to GHMC, namely Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, and Medak, and the revision of property prices and registration charges, GHMC ought to have got a handsome share of the transfer duty, had it been devolved as per the established norms.
However, since 2019, the transfer duty share of GHMC has not been devolved, even while the corporation reeled under the debt burden owing to the numerous road development projects taken up under the Strategic Road Development Plan. GHMC had written to the Registrations department last year, seeking its due share for the past five years, paving way for the process to be initiated.
Published – January 16, 2025 12:42 am IST
