Team Herald
PANJIM: If only the municipalities had collected the outstanding dues in the form of taxes in their respective jurisdictions, the local urban bodies may not have had to depend on the State government for funding. The total outstanding arrears to be collected by the municipalities cross Rs 54 crore.
Leading the list is the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) which is yet to collect taxes amounting to more than Rs 15.78 crore followed by Mormugao Municipal Council with outstanding arrears of more than Rs 15 crore.
The least amount to be recovered is by Pernem Municipal Council of about Rs 17 lakh followed by Valpoi Municipal Council with just a little over Rs 21.68 lakh.
Interestingly, almost Rs 44 crore of the Rs 54 crore is outstanding arrears to be collected in just four councils including Margao and Mapusa apart from CCP and Mormugao.
Speaking to Herald, Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado said that revenue collection has taken a toll because of court cases regarding some buildings in the city and in some cases it is the problem of the owners residing abroad and the inability to collect the taxes.
“We don’t have powers of sealing the premises. For the first time by passing bye-laws, we have taken a step towards giving powers to CCP and once they are approved by the Law Department we will execute them and collect the revenues,” he added.
Stating that one of the major revenue losses to CCP is from government offices, Furtado said “Being the capital city, a lot of government offices are located in the city, but we don’t get any revenue from them. We will discuss this issue in the next meeting and try to build a consensus to recover the revenue. I don’t understand why government offices shouldn’t pay.”
Mormugao Municipal Council Chairperson Deepak Naik blamed the oil companies located within the municipal limits for the huge amount of outstanding arrears. “Vasco has two major oil companies and the major arrears are from these two companies. They are yet to pay the council nearly Rs 11 crore,” he stated.
Stating that legal notices have been sent to the companies for the recovery of outstanding dues, he said that the arrears have accumulated for over a decade.
During a recent meeting of Chairpersons and Chief Officers or the local urban bodies, Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza had advised the municipal bodies to shortlist the first 20 people ward-wise with highest outstanding arrears and start recovering taxes from them.
He had cautioned, “I have now told them that if they do not recover the outstanding arrears, we will stop their grants. They are merely taking grants from the state government and not doing their work.”
