MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council came under the scanner of Madgavkars recently over the hike in taxes and fees on various heads and services. Critics rushed to slam the civic body for the hike in taxes and fees as high as 100 per cent and even 500 per cent.
The ruling BJP-ruled council, however, was quick to defend the hike in taxes and fees, saying the exercise was long overdue, and aimed at boosting the civic coffer, insisting that even A and B Class civic bodies are charging much more than the fees and taxes charged on various heads in the Commercial capital.
An audit of the Margao Municipal Council accounts for the year 2023-24 conducted by the Directorate of Accounts, however, does not paint a rosy picture of the civic body’s revenue position. In fact, the audit has highlighted how the Margao Municipality has pointed out revenue leakages, how the civic body has lost revenue on various heads during the financial year 2023-24. A glance at the audit report has shown the revenue loss, mounting tax arrears, etc all running into crores of rupees.
A copy of the audit report has been sent to the MMC Chief Officer, with a note stating that despite recording observations during the last inspection report, compliance to the previous audit observations have been neglected. In fact, Director of Accounts Dilip K Humraskar, in a letter to the Director of Urban Development, has stressed on the need for rigorous efforts to comply with the audit observations and filing of the compliance report to the audit without further details. The Goan takes a look at some of the audit observations:
GIS survey neglected, leading to Rs 20 cr loss
The audit has observed that no reassessment of any tax has been conducted based on the data from the GIS survey report for the last six years, which has led to loss of revenue from 2018-2023. The audit has stated that the failure to assess has resulted in substantial revenue loss amounting to Rs 20-odd crore.
A comparison of the existing Municipal data with the data from the GIS survey report shows that the civic body has lost revenue on house tax, sanitation tax, trade tax. A glance at the audit report shows that while the GIS survey report had found around 5,410 units liable for house tax and sanitation tax, only 4,441 units were paying the house and sanitation tax as per the MMC data.
Similarly, though the survey report had pegged around 2,358 establishments conducting business in the city, only 1,671 units were paying the trade tax to the civic body.
Revenue arrears of Rs 36.83 cr, lack of accountability
The audit observed that the total revenue arrears relating to the collection of various taxes by the Council at the close of the financial year 2023-24 amounted to whopping Rs 3,683.80 lakh.
The audit pointed out that the arrears of revenue constituted around 30.52 per cent of the total outstanding demand. Moreover, the audit noticed that a recovery officer has been appointed by the Council on January 3, 2022 till date. “The Officer continues to serve with a monthly remuneration of Rs 30,000. However, it has come to the notice that neither specific time bound targets have been assigned to the officer, nor was he asked to furnish monthly progress reports of recovery made,” the audit pointed out.
The audit observed that the outstanding recovery amount has increased from Rs 1,150.83 lakh compared to the year 2022-23. “The incidence of huge arrears points towards the failure of the Council in executing/ invoking the statutory provisions for recovery and collection of revenue. The corrective action initiated and the recovery status may be furnished to the audit,” the report stated.
Businesses being carried without trade licence
The audit observed that the MMC had inspected the market area and had detected 141 numbers of illegal establishments carrying out businesses for the year 2023-24. The MMC had issued show cause notices to stop the illegal activities as the business was in contravention of the provisions of the Margao Municipal Council Trade & Occupation Licensing Bye-laws 1989 and Section 265 of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968.
Questions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body over the fate of the notices issued to the illegal businesses and whether they have been brought under the tax net.
SGPDA defaults in payment of garbage fees
The SGPDA market came under the scanner of the audit team after it came across the non-recovery of garbage charges amounting to Rs 112 lakh for lifting and transporting of garbage from the PDA markets.
The audit observed that the arrears of revenue from the SGPDA markets amounted to Rs 112.14 lakh till December 2021. As the SGPDA was defaulting in the payment of garbage charges, the matter was placed before the Council at the special meeting dated July 22, 2022, which unanimously resolved to recover the arrears.
The MMC had sent a reminder to the PDA to pay the arrears failing which the Council may decide to discontinue the service of collection of garbage from the PDA markets. The audit, however, found that no amount was recovered till date, with the audit suggesting that the matter may be taken up with the government for settlement of the issue at the earliest.
Revenue loss to Council over sopo fees
The audit has observed that the Council had neither taken efforts to recover the instalments from the contractor nor notices were issued to the contractor for irregular/ less payment of instalment. The audit further observed that the agreement had been poorly drafted without implementing delay payment charges. “Due to the negligence on the part of the responsible officer by not updating the receipt on the due date of the instalment from the contractor has led to revenue loss to the Council,” the audit observed.
