Owners of vacant plots in the city to be served demand notices for vacant land tax

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation head office in Hyderabad. | Photo Credit: Representational purpose

Registration of vacant plots within the Greater Hyderabad is going to be more expensive than its market price. The cash-strapped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is gearing up with the demand notices to be served to the vacant plot owners in the city, in the name of the Vacant Land Tax (VLT).

Ignored so far despite having a sanction through the GHMC Act, 1955, the VLT has a high potential to generate revenue for the corporation, if levied on all the vacant plots. The GHMC is, however, looking at only new registrations as of now.

According to the Act, any vacant land is taxable at 0.5% of its registered market value annually as fixed and revised by the government from time to time. The tax is levied by the urban civic authorities with the aim of discouraging speculative value attached to the land, and to encourage development of the same.

However, the VLT has thus far been not enforced strictly by the civic authorities. The amendments to the GHMC Act in 2020, which made the sub-registrar responsible to generate Property Tax Identification Number at the time of registration or transfer of property, also made the official responsible for generating the Vacant Land Tax Number at the time of registration or transfer of vacant land property.

After initial hiccups, the amendments were finally put to implementation from 2022, leading to generation of PTINs and VLTNs from the registration offices. While the initial tax was deducted and transferred by the Registrations department, the subsequent tax was to be paid by the assessees, which is not being paid.

Since 2022, more than 50,000 vacant registrations have been effected within the city, from which an annual vacant land tax of close to ₹120 crore accrues to the GHMC. The arrears accumulating since 2022 on these lands stands at ₹220 crore, taking the total revenue aimed to ₹340 crore.

An official under the condition of anonymity shared that SMS blasts are being sent to all the vacant land owners asking them to pay the tax. In the financial year 2024-25, the collections stood at close to ₹7 crore from 2029 assessees, while in the current year, so far, ₹1 crore has been collected from 381 assessees.

Published - June 19, 2025 12:24 am IST