Team Herald
Municipalities on an aggressive revenue recovery spree
Margao: As the State reels under a cash crunch, the Directorate of Municipal Administration had to direct all Municipalities to start recovering pending dues so that they can be financially self-reliant.
The Margao Municipality has recently grabbed headlines with their drive for revenue recovery and against encroachment. The drive has exposed the failure of past administrations to recover pending dues which had led to the Municipality being dependent of funds from the State Government.
Herald contacted six Municipalities in South Goa and asked them what action have each of them taken for recovering the pending trade tax and house tax, and also what action have they taken against encroachments.
Cuncolim Municipal Council
The Chief Officer Shankar Gaonkar of Cuncolim Municipality informed that they have issued notices to every house whose pending house tax is more than Rs 1000. They have also issued notices to commercial establishments. “We have sealed around 12 shops who don’t have a trade license. That has sent a strong signal. Now others are coming to apply for the trade license and pay the tax”, informed Gaonkar
According to the Chief Officer, the NUSI-Wockhardt hospital in Panzorconi, Cuncolim has pending dues in the tune of Rs 19 Lakhs. “We have issued them a notice and if they don’t pay, we will be sealing the hospital”, informed the CO. He also said that he has issued notices to the mobile towers in Cuncolim. “One on the Industrial estate road has already been sealed. So far only Reliance Jio people have come to pay their taxes. The rest have not responded. We had issued them a notice two months back. If they don’t come, we will be sealing the towers”, he said.
Canacona Municipal Council
The Market Inspector of Canacona Municipal Council informed that they had conducted a day-long campaign around 20 days back along with Mamlatdar, Police and Municipal Engineer where we visited commercial establishments to recover the pending trade license from the shops operating within the Municipal jurisdiction. They asked the commercial establishments to produce their documents in the office.
The team did not yet seal any shop. The Market inspector was unable to tell how much trade license tax is pending. The tax officer informed that two months ago they had issued notices to those houses who had not paid their house tax.
Curchorem Cacora Municipal Council
The Chief Officer of Curchorem Cacora Municipality Kapil Phadte informed Herald that they have already started the revenue recovery process. “We have sent around 200 notices for recovery of trade license fees. We have also sent around 1400 notices with regards to house tax. We will be continuing this drive. It will be a holistic exercise. After the exercise, we will see how many people have paid and we will start with the second phase which will be complete enforcement.”, informed Phadte.
With respect to mobile towers, the Municipality will start initiating action in the second phase along with cable operators.
The CO said that he has chalked out the plan and implement it in a phased manner. “For example, we will set up a cattle pound in December after this drive is complete. Right not because of our notices, it has instilled some fear in defaulters.”
The CO informed that there are pending dues which had to come from Industrial units in the tune of around 7 lakhs per annum. “Today I’ll be giving a brief to the DMA regarding this”, he informed.
Mormugao Municipal Council
The Municipality of Vasco has constituted a team and had started their tax recovery drive since the last fortnight. The Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes informed that they have sealed 21 shops who did not have a trade license. “In the last two months, we have recovered around Rs 3.5 crores. We have issued 40 notices. We are first targeting only those who have to pay us more than Rs 10000 in pending dues. My dedicated team is going around every day and all the process of recovering the dues in process.”, said Fernandes.
He informed that they are even targeting mobile towers who have to pay pending tax. “Our target is Rs 10 Crores by December”, he said.
Quepem Municipal Council
The Quepem Municipal Council Chief Officer Darshani Desai said that their municipality has issued orders and in the process of recovering pending house and trade tax. “Our estimated recovery is around Rs 2 Crores by some of them(defaulters) have asked for waivers on certain amounts since the total amount has accumulated because of the interest on the pending amount. The Municipal Council is going to take a this waver”, said the CO.
The Chief Officer informed that they sent House tax notices to everyone whose dues are pending and with regards to the mobile towers within their jurisdiction, they are receiving regular payment. “The Market Inspector is taking action against the encroachment”, she said
“It has been brought to our notice that the house tax is pending of some houses since they had sold it but the house tax is not yet been transferred.” The Municipality has recovered a little over Rs 4.5 lakhs pending dues so far.
