Visakhapatnam Breaks Records with ₹510 Crore in Property Tax Collection

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has achieved something big this year – it collected over ₹500 crore in property tax for the financial year 2024-25. This is the highest collection ever for the city and marks a major milestone. The total amount collected stands at ₹510 crore, which is about ₹53 crore more than last year’s ₹457 crore.

A big reason for this jump was the addition of around 10,500 new properties to the tax records, which brought in ₹15 crore extra. On top of that, GVMC was able to recover taxes that had been pending for a long time, especially from some government departments that hadn’t paid their dues.

One major area that helped boost the collection was the Vacant Land Tax (VLT). This is the tax paid on empty plots of land. Normally, it brings in about ₹30–₹40 crore each year, but this time, it shot up to ₹75 crore due to stricter follow-ups and better tax enforcement.

Another important change was how property categories were updated. Many buildings that were being taxed as residential were actually being used for commercial purposes. When GVMC re-checked and corrected these entries, they were able to collect about ₹30 crore extra in tax. They also found buildings with extra floors that hadn’t been declared before, and taxed them properly too.

This success didn’t come overnight. Back in 2018–19, GVMC collected ₹302 crore. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, tax collections fell sharply to ₹224 crore in 2019–20 and ₹274 crore in 2020–21. Things slowly improved with ₹421 crore in 2022–23, and ₹457 crore last year. But this year’s jump to ₹510 crore is the biggest leap yet.

GVMC’s Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) S. Srinivasa Rao said they improved the system by dividing the tax collection responsibility among different ward offices in the city. This helped focus on each area better. They also paid special attention to vacant land taxes and reassessed many properties that were wrongly taxed under lower categories.

He also credited District Collector MN Harendhira Prasad, who led review meetings and gave the team a clear action plan. His involvement helped recover money from several defaulting institutions.

Looking ahead, GVMC has announced a 5% discount for people who pay their property and vacant land tax for 2025–26 before April 30. So if you want to save some money on your tax bill, make sure you pay on time.

To make things easier, GVMC has kept all their offices open from 9 am to 8 pm, even on Sundays, until April 30. People can pay their taxes through the GVMC website (gvmc.gov.in), using Bharat QR code, or by visiting banks and facilitation centers. Payments can be made in cash, card, UPI, cheque, or demand draft.

This record-breaking collection shows that Visakhapatnam is improving its systems, growing as a city, and making efforts to become more financially strong. If the GVMC keeps this up, even bigger numbers can be expected in the coming years.