PANJIM: A staff member of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) has written letters to the Chief Secretary (CS) of Goa, drawing his attention to glaring irregularities at the Corporation; primarily its failure to recover tax and revenue due to them for the last two decades. He said it is and was the collective responsibility of all the councillors as ‘fathers of the city’ to have acted on these issues like the Panjim market in the interest of the public.
“The Panjim Municipal Market was built in 2005 and has been operational since then but not a single rupee has come in the coffers of CCP as rent from the shop tenants till today,” said the complainant in his letter to the CS, which was forwarded to the CCP Commissioner by the Urban Development Additional Director for further action.
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“The Panjim Municipal market issue and outstanding of house, trade and sign board taxes both put together amounts to over Rs 50 crore losses to the exchequer. Hence the Directorate of Municipal Administration has got all the right to initiate an investigation. The huge revenue loss to the State warrants a CBI inquiry,” read the second letter.
“The outstanding receivables in the form of house tax, trade tax and signboard tax have reached a whopping Rs 37 crore. Rs 16 crore principal amount and Rs 21 crore accrued interests and fines,” read the letter.
CCP had recently introduced a one-time settlement scheme for recovering outstanding dues wherein the defaulters only have to pay the principal amount and not the interest.
“What were the past CCP commissioners, ATOs, AAOs, recovery cell staff, taxation section staff, mayors and councillors doing for the past 20 years to allow CCP affairs to reach this pathetic stage?” questioned the complainant.
“The commissioners, ATOs, AAOs are transferable posts and the moral duty of the legal cell and the recovery officer was to guide every new commissioner, ATO, AAO with proper guidance for the benefit of CCP to solve these issues and recover the outstanding. It shows that the proper guidance has not happened. The present dispensation of the Mayor and company has dissolved the legal cell for obvious reasons,” the staff member alleged.
The complainant also questioned why sealing powers of CCP is still being debated, which could have been used to pull up the tax defaulters.
“If CCP is vested with powers to seal premises for not paying their taxes, then there will be a total turnaround. Every defaulter will pay up. Hence the Sealing Act should be implemented as soon as possible. Why should the honest taxpayer have to suffer? And the defaulters enjoy the benefits, which CCP has to offer, that too without paying for it,” the staff member added.
It may be recalled that CCP has started to issue eviction notices to those tenants of the municipal market who aren’t willing to sign the new leave and license agreements.
However, this staff member has called for investigation into the initial allotment of the shops and the original list of beneficiaries.
The staff member alleged that there is a cover up to protect those persons who have used their strong influence at CCP to get themselves involved in benami possession of shops, thereby rented out these shops and enjoying huge returns/rent at the cost of CCP.
The complainant also questioned the delay in ratifying and implementing the new-bylaws that were prepared by former collector N D Agarwal and scrutinised by the State Law Department.
The staff member suggested that the expertise of the Law Department be used as he alleged that CCP has deliberately allowed situations to remain unsolved.
“Do not depend on the legal cell of CCP or its empanelled advocates for comments or their frivolous action reports to solve the issue. This is the reason nothing has happened all these years,” the complainant added.
