Team Herald
MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes since taking over the job on November 24, 2017 has succeeded in reducing the outstanding dues to the council by Rs 4.60 crore which translates into a collection of nearly Rs 1.15 crore a month.
It may be recalled that Johnson who was working as the Additional Collector II in the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex was brought as chief officer with a clear directive to improve the tax collection at the council which had turned very sluggish.
When he took over, the outstanding dues to the council were nearly Rs 17 crore with the dues on House tax itself amounting to Rs 8 crore and sanitation fees from households amounting to another Rs 5 crore.
However, in the last four months the outstanding dues to MMC have dropped to Rs 12.21 crore with the house tax over dues now being Rs 5.46 crore and outstanding sanitation fees being at Rs 3.28 crore.
The outstanding payments towards trade license was a whopping Rs 2,34,30,699 when Johnson took over. Having collected a little over Rs 16 lakhs in the last four months, the outstanding trade license now stands at Rs 2.17 crore.
By collecting rent amounting to Rs 44.49 lakh in the last four months, the outstanding rent payable to the council now is reduced to Rs 32.20 lakh as against the overdue of Rs 75.69 lakh four months back. The council has collected only Rs 56,614 from hawkers and their outstanding as of now stands at Rs 10.72 lakh.
Interestingly, the council has collected surplus amount as sanitation charges from hawkers and traders thereby wiping off the outstanding amount of Rs 4.03 lakh from hawkers and 33,600 from traders.
Johnson was all praise for the MMC staff who collected these amounts by visiting people at their residence. Fourteen officials were divided into two member teams and given specific areas to cover where they had to present the demand note of the payment receivable and also issue a receipt if the payment was made.
“The experience was that most people paid the money when they were told the amount that was to be paid,” said Johnson adding that the team covered all 25 wards of the town. Incidentally, they used the old data base of the council where the wards are still shown as 15 and not 25.
The council has taken a break at the moment from visiting places to collect the taxes as presently it is seized with surveying Ward No 14 and upgrading its data which the survey by Transverse Technology has shown to be full of mistakes.
“Generally during the summer months of April and May a lot of people voluntarily come to the council to pay their various taxes and that is the reason why the team has now been asked to study ward No 14,” Johnson said.
