MARGAO
With outstanding revenue arrears crossing the whopping Rs 30-odd crore and the Civic body have no recovery plan in place to recover the mounting tax arrears, the Margao Municipal Council on Tuesday received a piece of advice from the 3rd Goa State Finance Commission to recover the arrears as well as to mop up additional revenue.
Un-utilized grants running into crores of rupees also came under the radar of the Goa State Finance Commission, with the Commission making it clear to the civic body that grants, both central and state, are sanctioned to the local bodies for utilization on infrastructure and not to deposit the funds in fixed deposits.
After the Margao Municipal Council gave a presentation on the financial position of the civic body, with arrears crossing the Rs 30 crore figure mark, Commission Chairman Daulat Havaldar remarked that the MMC ‘s present recovery is just 30 per cent of the total revenue recovery. Against this backdrop, Havaldar suggested to the civic body to zero in on the recovery of rent from municipal properties to mop up revenue.
“The economy now shows signs of improving after the two year COVID-19 pandemic. Rent from Municipal properties is a major source of revenue and no civic body can afford to loose this revenue from their own properties”, Havaldar said.
Incidentally, when the Municipal staff drew attention of the Commission members that Central Finance Commission grants have been lying unutilized with the civic body since 2000-02, with the total grants
pegged at Rs 40-odd crore, the Commission observed that grants are given to the civic bodies for utilization and not to deposit in the bank.
Havaldar pointed out that grants received by the civic body should be spent on revenue generating projects so that the revenue earned from the projects can supplement the revenue. “We can understand if the grants are not utilized for a year or three, but the grants cannot lie in the bank for years without utilization”, he said .
While the unutilized 14th Finance Commission grants lying with the civic body are pegged around Rs 31 crore, which has been earmarked to set up garbage treatment plants, the 15th Finance Commission grants lying with the Civic body is pegged around Rs 9.93 crore. The grants pertaining to the 2001-02 financial years is pegged around Rs eight crore.
Shadow Council for Margao Savio Coutinho impressed upon the chairman of the Finance Commission Daulat Havaldar that the government has to seriously work out some modality for the revision of the rent towards the Municipal owned premises.
"The lessees and the illegally sublet Municipal premises are getting rental as low as Rs 25-100, while the actual rent earned by subletting runs to over Rs 25,000-40,000," Coutinho said while suggesting that the figure of Rs 8.73 crore outstanding shown by the Council is based on old rates. "Imagine the actual quantum of losses to the public exchequer on account of the failure of revision of rent rates for the Municipal owned premises," Coutinho stated further.
Margao Municipal Councillor Ganashyam Shirodkar drew attention of the Commission to the injustice done to the city despite Margao being the state’s Commercial capital. Saying that Margao’s contribution to the state kitty is around 40 per cent of the total revenue, Ganashyam, however, lamented that the city is not compensated in terms of revenue for development.
Councillor Sadanand Naik highlighted the fact that many areas in the city, including Moti Dongor and the Housing Board area are not assessed for house tax, but added that the households also enjoy all benefits, including garbage collection free of cost.
Councillor Shagun Naik also drew attention of the Commission to the various discrepancies denying precious revenue to the civic body.
