Team Herald
MARGAO: Lamenting that it has taken the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) nearly a year to take cognizance of Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) charge that most traders in Margao were conducting business without a trade licence, SCM convener Savio Coutinho asserted that the municipality should in no way lose revenue due to it from a mall on account of the delay in issuing the trade licence.
He pointed out that the SCM had last year stated that nearly 85 per cent of the business premises in a commercial arcade and a building next to the Council did not have trade licence.
“While there are nearly 1900 premises in commercial arcade, only 62 have valid trade licence and in the building of the 200-odd premises only 12 possess a trade licence,” he said and welcomed the Council’s recent attempt to mop up revenue from at least three business establishments.
He alleged that corruption within the council was hampering the trade licence and wondered why all files have to go to the chairperson’s chamber where they mysteriously disappear at times. He demanded that the Council should set up a dedicated cell to deal with trade licence with minimum heads.
“Right now the file goes to one engineer for inspecting the area, another to inspect the signage and so on and so forth,” he said asserting that a small and dedicated cell has to be constituted to deal with the taxation issues.
While disclosing that the from May 2017 till June 2018 though the council received 806 applications for trade licence, the Council issued only 150, which is shocking,” he said adding that on an average every licence was issued more than four months after the application.
“These are business people who would not waste their time with the Council and instead the municipality should go to them and ensure that the trade licence is issued as soon as possible,” he said.
Congratulating the Council for issuing trade license to a mart within three days of receiving the application, he wondered why the licence is not still issued to the mall, which had made the application nearly a year ago.
“Who will pay the Rs 13 lakh that the mall is supposed to pay for the one year they have done business without getting the licence despite applying for the same?” he asked and asserted that the council should not lose this amount.
He clarified that during his tenure as chairman, the licensing system was efficient.
