MARGAO
After banks, including nationalized ones, and big time shopping malls in the commercial capital were caught evading rent running into lakhs to the Margao Municipal Council, more skeletons started tumbling out of the cupboards during the ongoing drive being conducted by the civic body against tax defaulters.
Action against just three banks and a shopping mall promises to enrich the coffers of the cash-starved Margao municipality by close to a whopping Rs one crore. And, civic officials in the know say this is just the tip of the iceberg as most of the business establishments, especially those run by traders from outside the State, are operating from rented premises. And, the traders or the landlords as the case may be have been found defaulting in the payment of the one month rent to the municipality in addition to the mandatory trade licence.
The modus operandi adopted by the unscrupulous traders and financial establishment appears simple. While many an establishment have been caught with their pants down for carrying on the trade without the mandatory trade licences, there are others which have been operating without revision of the house tax over the years. In effect, while the landlords had been earning handsome rent from the traders, the revision of rent was hidden from the Margao Municipal Council for years, causing huge tax losses to the civic body.
Take the case of a nationalized bank located in the heart of the town. The Margao Municipal Council has issued a notice to the landlord, who has let out his premises to the bank, to pay a revised rent/house tax amounting to a whopping Rs 45 lakh. A senior MMC official explained to The Goan that this particular landlord and the bank had failed to pay to the civic body the revised rent/house tax since the last 18 years.
“The landlord and the bank had been paying the house tax/rent to the civic body based on the 2001 agreement between the two parties. They had never paid the house tax/ rent to the civic body based on the rent revised rate every year,” a senior MMC official told The Goan.
The landlord and the bank are now liable to pay the huge house tax/rent since the MMC has revised the house tax records which were not updated for years now.
Meanwhile, MMC Chief Officer Siddivinayak Naik has finally issued a notice to the shopping mall housed at the Osia Commercial Complex, directing the licensor and the licensee to remit an amount of Rs 34.25 lakh to the civic body as per the revision of house tax in order to enable this office to issue the Trade and Occupation License to the mall. This shopping mall had been under the scanner of the civic body as well as the citizens as it had started operations without obtaining the mandatory trade license.
Says CO Siddivinayak Naik: “We have set in motion the process to recover the huge outstanding house tax/rent arrears, which run into crores of rupees. The civic coffers will be enriched by Rs one crore with the issuance of notices to just three banks and a shopping mall. The ongoing exercise will be taken to the logical conclusion though it may be time consuming.”
