The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation head office in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) authorities have started taking action against property owners who issued invalid cheques towards payment of property tax dues last year.
After consultation with the legal team, notices are being sent to the defaulters whose cheques bounced at the bank. Action will be taken against them under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, which penalises the dishonour of any cheque issued in the discharge of the whole or part of any debt or other liability. Bounced cheques have been a problem for the corporation every financial year end, but action has never been initiated thus far.
This year, the unrealised amount due to bounced cheques stands at close to ₹10 crore, from about 700-800 assessees, officials informed. “We failed to take action earlier because notices were to be sent within one month of the cheque bounce instance. This year, the commissioner is very serious about action against the defaulters, hence we have started issuing notices. Based on the response to the notices, we will file criminal cases against the defaulters,” an official informed under the condition of anonymity.
Invalid cheques include those with signature mismatch, the ones with overwriting, and a large number of them with insufficient funds in the account. There are also cheques issued for closed accounts, shared the official. Action will also be initiated against the bill collectors through whom significantly larger portion of the bounced cheques are received.
“There are instances when bill collectors, under the pressure of increasing the collection and meeting the targets, force the assessees to give cheques even without sufficient balance. Action is being planned to discourage such behaviour,” another official said.
Earlier, all the cheques would be shown as revenue online, even before they were realised, leading to audit issues. Later, a system has been developed whereby the assessee would be given only a provisional acknowledgement, and the final receipt would be generated only after the cheque is realised.
