Team Herald
MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai complimented Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes and his team for mopping up revenue for the council by collecting a significant amount of money as house tax and sanitary fees and also said the council would consider paying travelling allowance to the officers involved in the drive to mop up revenue
She said ever since Johnson took over, he formed a team of officers who have been visiting individual houses and collecting the house tax that was not paid for long. “Since the drive was launched on December 5, the Council has collected Rs 1.77 crore as house tax and sanitary fee,” she said adding that around Rs 4 to Rs 6 lakh were collected every day.
Incidentally, the total arrears of taxes due to MMC is around Rs 13 crore. “However, after reconciliation that is removing the arrears listed from government departments and also houses that have been demolished the total arrears should come up to Rs 13 crore,” said the chairperson.
Johnson who took over as the chief officer on November 24, 2017 complimented the team that collected the arrears. He said that if the teams continue to work with the same spirit, they would collect around Rs 5 crore of the arrears, by the end of the current financial year.
“We have concentrated only on house tax and the sanitary fees but need to concentrate on the trade tax and rented premises next,” he said.
Appreciating the work done by the staff, Dr Babita said at the next council meeting she would propose paying them a monthly travelling allowance of Rs 500 as the officers have to use their own vehicles to visit people at their houses.
Conceding that the special counter set up to register for trade tax did not evoke much response, she said the council may have to consider taking penal action against those carrying out illegal trade and added that the GIS survey currently being undertaken in ward No 14 as a pilot project would help in a big way to deal with the illegal trade.
She said the council has given till the end of February to the contractor to complete the GIS survey as they had complained of facing severe problem. “In the slum area they cannot even visit some places because there are so many illegal dwelling houses there that the people do not cooperate at all,” she said adding that they have appealed to the people to register themselves even if their structure is illegal.
The survey undertaken at a cost of Rs 2 lakh is around 70 per cent complete, she said and added that the council may have to consider issuing trade license on “as is where is” basis.
She admitted that the taxation department of the council is facing a severe manpower crunch and disclosed that it is nearly one year now that the council is functioning without a full time Accountant. “The DMA had taken our accountant for a period of three months but it is nearly one year now and we have not been given an accountant despite constant reminders to the DMA,” she said.
Pointing out that the council needs two more staff members just to deal with the entries for trade tax she said the problem was finding competent persons as they require computer savvy people.
She also disclosed that the council is talking to some banks to open zero balance accounts for the staff so that their salaries can be deposited directly in the bank as currently due to some glitches in the bank, staff gets their salaries some days after it is deposited.
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Civic chief happy that she resolved
petrol pump rent arrears issue
Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudesai was extremely happy and felt proud that she has been able to resolve the long standing problem of the arrears payable by the petrol pumps in Margao. “After carrying out a dialogue with the petroleum companies for nearly nine months we have now come to an agreement and look forward to even consider signing a fresh lease agreement with the companies,” she said. She disclosed that while Bharat Petroleum has paid Rs 57 lakh to the council, Hindustan Petroleum is due to pay Rs 27 lakh for which demand notice will be sent soon. “It was a mistake on our part that since 2008 the rent was not revised nor were the petroleum companies informed that there is an increase in the rent and that is why the matter was stuck for so long,” she said. She said the rent for Kurade Petrol Pump has been increased to Rs 79,000 per month from the earlier rent of Rs 71,000 per month. The rent rates per month of other petrol pumps are Virginkar – Rs 71,000, Keni – Rs 39,000 and Kavlekar Rs 59,000.
Admitting that the earlier resolution of the MMC to shift the petrol pumps has not been implemented, she said the issue of shifting would be finalised only after the Outline Development Plan of Margao is ready and the area where they can be allotted is demarcated on it.
“Rs 50 stamp papers are required for simple matters like swearing an affidavit or issuing NOC and as they are unavailable people have to purchase Rs 100 stamp papers,” he said adding that the option of using lower denomination papers and affixing adhesive stamps is not feasible as lower denomination stamps are also not available
