TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The Cuncolim Municipal Council had planned and executed the multi-crore commercial complex-cum-hall project to earn revenue by way of auctioning of the 16 shops.
But the civic body has found itself in a tight as it has realised that it cannot auction the shops unless it clears the infrastructure tax payable to the government amounting to a whopping Rs 19 lakh.
That’s not all. Making matters worse for the civic body is government’s decision to reject its plea for waiver of the infrastructure tax pertaining to its mega retail market. And with the revenue position not comfortable, with the monthly salary bill working out to a whopping Rs 18 lakh, the civic body is toying with the idea of pre-mature withdrawal of fixed deposit money to clear the infrastructure tax.
Cuncolim Municipal Chairperson Devendra Desai said that he plans to soon call a special meeting of the civic body to discuss the auctioning of the shops and the payment of infrastructure tax. “Right now we don’t have that much in our account to clear the huge infrastructure tax. That’s the reason why I have convened a special meeting of the civic body to take a final call on the issue,” he said.
Replying to a question, the CMC chairperson said the government did not agree with our plea to exempt the retail market from payment of infrastructure tax. “The infrastructure tax would have been considerably less had the government accepted our proposal for waiver of the tax in respect of the market. The civic body now finds itself in a fix,” he said, saying that non-payment of the infrastructure tax would further delay auctioning of the 16 shops in the commercial complex, resulting in a further loss of revenue, running into lakhs of rupees.
Sources in the know said the Cuncolim civic body has already lost revenue amounting to lakhs of rupees till date over the inordinate delay in auctioning the shops in its commercial complex, which was handed over to the Municipal by GSUDA in 2011.
