Notwithstanding the fact that it has collected nearly Rs 4.50 crore as taxes during the last four months, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has a herculean task ahead to collect various taxes, as the outstanding amount has been rising steadily for the past three years.
The outstanding taxes at the end of the last financial year stands at Rs 12,56,44,018, which is less than the Rs. 17 crore outstanding amount recorded at the end of the 2016-17 financial year.
Interestingly, the outstanding house tax at the end of the last financial year was less than what it was at the end of 2016-17. However, in all other cases the outstanding amount has increased.
While the outstanding house tax was nearly Rs 6.38 crore at the end of 2016-17, presently it stands at Rs 5,51,21,919. In the case of trade tax the outstanding amount is Rs. 2,17,51,149 at the end of 2017-18 which is higher than the Rs. 1,98,17,502 that was outstanding at the end of 2016-17.
The outstanding amount to be collected from signboards stands at Rs 38,52,159 at the end of the last financial year, while it was a little less at Rs 36,59,153 at the end of 2016-17 and similar is the case with the rent, where the outstanding amount was Rs 51,59,210 at the end of 2016-17, which has increased to Rs. 77,54,521 at present.
Even the outstanding amount from sanitation fee has gone up and rise is quite significant in the collection from traders. While the outstanding amount as sanitation from households stood at Rs 2,23,61,608 at the end of 2016-17 it rose marginally by five lakhs at present, where the outstanding amounts to Rs 3,28,61,708.
However, the outstanding amount to be collected as sanitation tax from traders has increased by nearly Rs 41 lakhs as it stood at Rs 2,28,000 at the end of 2016-17 but now stands at Rs 43,02,562.
As the 25 wards of MMC are tabulated as only 15 wards that were there earlier and all tax details are maintained in that format, the ward that has the highest outstanding amount is Ward No. 2 where the outstanding house tax is Rs. 1,16,42,315. In the previous two financial years too, the outstanding house tax from this ward was the highest at Rs. 1,19,73,349 and Rs. 1,26,43,921 respectively.
The least outstanding house tax for the last three financial years is from Ward No. 8, where in 2015-16 the outstanding amount was Rs. 8,14,905, in 2016-17 it was Rs. 7,72,729 and presently stands at Rs. 8,72,252.
The outstanding sanitation fee from households is highest in ward No. 14 where it stands at Rs 58,12,200 and least is in ward No. 11 where it is Rs 9,38,400. During last year the highest outstanding amount was from ward No 3 where it was Rs 56,24,400 and the lowest of Rs 7,02,000 was from Ward No. 8.
As far as trade tax is concerned in 2015-16 only eight of the 11 traders sent demand notes paid while in 2016-17 seven of the 10 traders served demand notes paid and in the year gone by only four traders paid the trade tax.
As far as signboard notice is concerned, while in 2015-16 eight of 13 sent notices paid the amount while the next year 9 of the 12 sent notices paid and during the last financial year all seven who were asked to pay the signage fees paid the amount.
MMC Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes taking cognizance of the task ahead said he will go by the formula that gave results for the last four months. “I shall revive the tax collection team of 14 staff members to collect all the outstanding amount once the summer month is over,” he said. “It is our experience that in the months of April and May people come on their own to pay their taxes and hence there is no need to send the team to the households,” he said.
