MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council Chief Officer Johnson B Fernandes who has been given a specific target of mopping up MMC’s revenue and collect the arrears has taken his task quite seriously.
The council has launched a special drive in ward Nos 1 to 6 to collect house tax and sanitary tax by visiting each household and presenting them the bill including the arrears. In the 12 days since the drive was launched on December 5, the council has collected Rs 54.50 lakh.
“The house tax arrears of MMC total to a little over Rs 10 crore and this is one way of reducing the arrears,” said Johnson who was hopeful of collecting more money in a similar manner from the other wards of the council.
Johnson also hopes to recover around Rs 5 crore from 16 builders who have not paid the house tax for apartments they constructed and though the apartments are sold, the purchasers have not transferred the house tax in their name.
During the drive undertaken in the six wards now, it was found that arrears are surmounting only because people who had rented out their premises have not informed the council that the person who had taken the premises on rent has left.
