MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council has once again fallen short on revenue collection as per the budget projection for the current year; in fact, under some heads the collection is less than what was collected in the year 2017-18.
To cite some instances, in 2017-18, the MMC collected Rs 77,45,128 by way of rent on land and buildings while last year, that is, in 2018-19 it collected only Rs 35,17,186 which translates into Rs 42,27,942 less revenue collected.
Similarly, in 2017-18 Rs 1,22,684 was collected from notices and warrant fees, last year only Rs 52,027 was collected which is a decline by Rs 70,657. And apparently there were fewer applications under Right to Information Act last year as only Rs 22,090 was collected while the previous year RTI applications earned MMC Rs 24,479.
While the expenditure under most heads had increased last year compared to the previous year, in some cases it has declined. Expenses in connection with suits and prosecution declined by Rs 21,49,998 compared to the Rs 26,27,846 that was spent under this head in 2017-18.
Salary paid to government staff on deputation also decreased by Rs 6,48,788 probably there were less government servants deputed to MMC; expenditure on the cattle pound keeper also decreased by Rs 22,917.
Incidentally, the cattle pound keeper is questionable as a woman is appointed to this position who is never at the cattle pound but is always found in Municipal Office at Margao and Dr Babita Prabhudessai wondered how a woman could have been appointed to this post.
Although former deputy chief minister and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardessai kept repeating that Siddhivinayak Naik has been brought as MMC chief officer to improve the tax collection, figures for last year show that this has not happened and MMC still has to recover crores of rupees by way of taxes.
