the goan I network
MAPUSA
With an aim to earn revenue, Mapusa Municipal Council on Wednesday decided to impose house tax on illegal structures built on private land pending final decision on regularizing them.
Similar decision on houses on communidade land will also be taken only after collating proper data.
Making a case for collection of house tax from illegal structures, MMC, Chairperson, Rohan Kavlekar said that the civic body offers all facilities to these houses but does not get anything in return.
“We are giving all facilities to illegal houses on private and communidade land but we don’t earn any revenue from them. It’s high time we take a decision to charge them,” Kavlekar said.
He said the electricity department and PWD were collecting revenue from such structures by way of consumption bills but the civic body was not getting any revenue from them.
Senior councillor, Ryan Braganza said that before deciding to impose house tax it would be advisable to take the opinion of the owners of the private land and the communidade on the issue.
He also suggested imposing house tax on the higher side on such illegal structures.
“Some people have made it a business of building illegal houses on private and communidade land and extorting money from gullible people. To discourage such activity we should increase the house tax for such structures,” Braganza said.
Former chairperson, Sandip Falari said that there should be a cut off date and suggested taking the date announced by the government to regularize houses up to 28th February, 2014.
Councilor Swapnil Shirodkar said that the council could impose house tax on structures on private land but not on communidade land as no data about illegal houses on communidade land was made available to the councilors.
The council finally decided to charge house tax on illegal structures on private land and deferred similar action on communidade land.
