MARGAO
Pose this simple question to Madgavkars and apt will come the answer that the number of commercial establishments registered with MMC does not represent the ground reality, with thousands of establishments operating in the commercial capital without the mandatory trade licence and valid advertising boards, thus denying the civic body of the revenue on the two heads “ trade licence and
advertising fees.
This raises an oft asked question: why is the civic body dilly-dallying in bringing thousands of unauthorised business establishments under the tax net, forcing these illegal establishments to pay the mandatory trade licence and advertising fees? That the municipality has no data on the number of business establishments in the town is an open secret. What’s shocking to know is that successive councils have been literally dragging its feet to order a survey of the business establishments which would help boost revenue from the two heads “ trade licence and advertising fees.
Even officials in the know privately reveal that a survey of business establishments would have cost MMC a few lakhs of rupees, but the exercise would have help tap revenue amounting to crores of rupees. While the municipality has been caught napping in the recovery of revenues amounting close to Rs 10 crore, civic officials say this figure is just the tip of the ice berg, considering the amount of revenue that remains untapped by the municipality by way of trade licence and advertising fees.
A glance at the budget estimates approved by the municipal body for the current financial year 2017-18 reveals that the civic body has not done its homework in tapping revenue from trade licence and advertising fees. Take the case of trade licence. The budget estimates for 2017-18 has projected a revenue of Rs two crore by way of trade licence. In the first instance, it’s unclear whether the Council can achieve the figure without any survey of the numbers of commercial establishments. For, the civic body had earned a revenue of Rs 50.87 lakh by way of trade licence during the financial year 2015-16 and Rs 44.84 lakh during the eight months of the last financial year, raising questions over the projected figure of Rs two crore.
The situation on the advertising tax is no different. With the council not in possession of any records of the number of advertising boards displayed by the establishments across the city, MMC has lost an important revenue source over the years. A glance at the 2017-18 budget estimates reveal that while the civic body has projected revenue of Rs 1.50 crore from advertising revenue in the next one year, MMC had ended up in earning only Rs 11.93 lakh by way of advertising fees. The council had earned a revenue of Rs 11.27 lakh during the last eight months of the last financial year, again indicating that MMC has miserably failed in tapping these two revenue sources to enrich its coffers.
Interestingly, a haphazard exercise carried out by the municipal employees a fortnight ago has revealed that dozens of establishments were carrying on trade sans the mandatory licence, throwing up a challenge to the city fathers and babus to crack a whip against the
illegal trade.
