MARGAO: Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) on Friday expressed satisfaction over the fact that the SCM succeeded in making the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) realize and differ the proposal to hike several taxes/fees that were listed to be hiked enormously.
“Shadow Council, on behalf of all the citizens, thanked O Heraldo in a very special way, for highlighting the issue in its daily,” said SCM convenor Savio Coutinho.
“The proposal for hiking of fees/charges was listed in the Council meeting for approval, without proper study and reasoning. On what basis, the Chairperson of MMC thought proposing the unjustified rates is something difficult to digest for the citizens. So also, whether such arbitrary proposals were legally in order had not been considered by the Council, said Maria do Carmo, from Margao.
Even as the SCM welcomed MMC’s decision to differ its proposal, it strongly condemned the Council for its inaction in tapping the sources from where several crores of rupees revenue could be earned annually.
“We truly fail to understand why MMC and the leaders Controlling the Council develop cold feet when it comes to collection of taxes from certain vote banks and other unassessed premises, including the markets,” said Dr. Roslyn Pereira.
“The most ironical proposal of the Council was the attempt to fix the minimum rate of rent receivable by private commercial premise owners. How could the Council even think of setting a minimum rent of 10000 per month for private commercial premises, when the Council very happily accepts rent of Rs. 50 to 100 from Council owned premises in the Municipal markets?” she questioned.
“There are scores of privately owned commercial premises that are located in very interior areas, which fetch rentals much below 10000, and the Council intends to impose a rental of 10000 per month to calculate the revision of house tax for such premises rented out. This is the most absurd thing for the Council to come up with,” added Adv Arsekar, a Margao-based lawyer.
