Officials of the
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation have decided to initiate legal
action against property tax payers whose cheques bounced. Since
bouncing of cheques is becoming all too common, the GHMC is also
planning to engage an independent agency to collect money from tax
payers who issue invalid cheques.GHMC officials said the corporation suffered a loss of more than Rs 10 crore because of cheque bounce cases during 2010-11. “For
instance one V Sobha Rani, resident of Moosarambagh, issued a a cheque
of Rs 13,000 but bank officials returned the cheque due to insufficient
balance in her account,’’ a GHMC official said. Officials were in
for a bigger shock, when cheques worth Rs 3.1 crore given by residents
of the twin cities bounced, out of the total Rs 40 crore collected on
March 31. In another case, A Krishna, resident of New Malakpet,
gave a cheque to bill collectors with incomplete signature on it’
leading to the bank returning the cheque. Subash Agarwal, a resident of
Santoshnagar issued a cheque after he had closed his bank account.“We
will initiate legal action against tax payers, who issue invalid
cheques to the GHMC for payment of property taxes. Our staff are still
working in segregating bounced cheques,’’ said S Hari Krishna,
additional commissioner, finance and revenue, GHMC. The civic body has
also released a notification to hire a new agency for collecting
cheques.GHMC financial adviser T Vijay Kumar said besides the
issue of lack of sufficient funds, several cheques bounced due to
incomplete signatures, overwriting on cheques, and corrections to
signatures without counter-signatures. The bankers rejected to
encash the cheques due to such mistakes. “Legal notices will be sent to
errant tax payers asking them to give an explanation about why action
should not be initiated against them,” Vijay Kumar said. A similar situation was witnessed last year when 800 cheques worth Rs 6 crore bounced.
By Mouli Mareedu
moulimareedu@gmail.com
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