Team Herald
MARGAO: The Shadow Council today condemned the move of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to include the waste collection fees/sanitation fees in the house tax bills.
Reacting to public notice published in the media yesterday, the Shadow Council for Margao criticised the council for the U-turn taken on the fees issue.
The Shadow Council has demanded that the immediate withdrawal of the public notice, immediate data collection and enforcement of a fair and uniform taxation system for all the waste generators in the city.
The Shadow Council has appealed to the taxpaying public to come out and register their objections to the move of the council to charge sanitation fees. Further, the Shadow Council has also requested the tax payers to question their representatives over the “discrimination” meted towards them.
Reminding the chairperson of her declaration to the media that data collection would be undertaken first before going for a single taxing system, the Shadow Council said the present move to include garbage and sanitation fees in the house tax is a shame on the Council, because it would only burden the loyal tax payers, while offering free services to those who do not pay tax.
The Shadow Council has been time and again demanding the Council to undertake data collection of all the premises in the city, said Savio Coutinho, a former MMC chairperson.
With regard to the notice published, the Shadow Council said that the council does not have a record of all the commercial establishments operating in the city. As such, over 70 percent of the commercial establishments operating in the city shall not be paying sanitation fees to the council. So also, over 10,000 residential premises that have not been assessed to tax shall be enjoying free services at the cost of loyal house tax payers.
“The data collection is essential for the council to know beforehand, how much revenue can be expected as sanitation fees from the various types of waste generators in the city. Absence of proper data will only leave a huge scope for corruption, which probably this council prefers,” Savio Coutinho said.
The Shadow Council has also called municipality’s decision to collect garbage fees from unoccupied and locked premises, registered in the books of the Council, as total injustice, “as such premises do not produce waste.”
