Wednesday was the end of the financial year and as usual Curchorem-Cacora Municipal Council failed to recover a huge amount of arrears in the form of rent, house tax, trade tax, property tax, sign boards fees etc.
According to sources, CCMC has recovered Rs 30 lakh and around Rs 89 lakh has to be collected in the form of various taxes during the financial year 2015-16.
It may be recalled that as per the central auditor’s report of March 2014, nearly Rs1.5 crore was not recovered by the CCMC and therefore after that, the council had taken various measures to recover the dues.
Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes had issued many notices asking the stake holders to cooperate and clear the dues. The Council also formed committees of council staff to personally recover the dues but seeing the big amount of arrears, the question arises as to whether the council succeeded in their mission of recovery or not.
The council has to recover house tax alone of Rs 46 lakh followed by trade tax of Rs 26 lakh, rent of Rs16 lakh and sign boards outstanding of Rs 29,000.
The amount of Rs 2 crore received by the council as a special grant which was released by the government on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Goa’s liberation to undertake development work has been used to construct the new administrative building coming up near the public garden.
“The work of construction of the building project which is in progress was estimated at Rs 21 crore. The remaining amount of Rs 19 crore will be borne by the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA),” informed Fernandes.
The proposed annual budget for the financial year 2016-17 was approved by the council during its special meeting held in February and the same has been sent to the Director of Urban Development for his approval.
When asked why the council failed to recover the huge amount of arrears even after one year, Fernandes replied, “In spite of all our efforts, some people are still not cooperating. But now there is no other option other than to take coercive steps against the defaulters.”
When contacted, Chairperson Vishwas Sawant said that only four months have passed for him as Chairperson and he tried to recover whatever he could. “The remaining arrears I will collect within this financial year and try to put everything in order,” he assured.
