Hyderabad: Guidelines issued for occupancy certificates of buildings with approved plans.

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has issued uniform guidelines for the process of issuing Occupancy Certificates for buildings constructed according to approved plans that do not fall under the high-rise category. These guidelines are specifically for building owners who have not obtained certificates despite the validity period of their building permit having expired.

The GHMC Commissioner, in a circular, stated that these guidelines will apply to approved buildings where construction was completed according to sanctioned plans, but the Occupancy Certificate was not obtained within the stipulated validity period. The lack of an Occupancy Certificate was causing difficulties for building owners in obtaining services from water and electricity agencies. Problems were also arising in securing bank loans. These guidelines have been issued with this in mind.

Fee on total built-up area for applications after two years

The GHMC Commissioner explained that under the new process, if an application for an OC is made within two years of the building permit’s expiry date, it will be settled by collecting the pending building permit fee and other applicable charges such as for link roads and as per CRMP Rule 26. If the application for an OC is submitted after two years, all fees applicable to the total built-up area as of the application date will be levied.

In both cases, the OC will be issued only if deviations in construction are within permissible limits. This allows a maximum deviation of up to 10 percent in mandatory setbacks, while the front setback is excluded from this relaxation. The GHMC clarified that these guidelines will apply only to non-high-rise buildings.

Urge to avail OTS benefit

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has called for availing the benefit of the One Time Settlement scheme for property tax arrears. Under this, a 90 percent rebate is being offered on the accumulated interest on the outstanding amount. According to GHMC officials, property owners can settle pending arrears through a lump sum payment. For this, they only need to pay the principal tax amount along with just 10 percent of the accumulated interest, while the remaining 90 percent interest will be waived. This will reduce the financial burden on taxpayers and promote voluntary compliance.

Citizens have been urged to avail this limited-time opportunity and contribute to the city’s development. Under the OTS, payments can be made conveniently through the MyGHMC mobile app, Mee-Seva centers, GHMC Citizen Service Centers, and other online payment modes.