MARGAO
Both have no answer to the glaring discrepancy, throwing up questions whether commercial establishments are operating in the city without obtaining the mandatory trade license or whether there’s a huge number of households which are still unregistered with the civic body and not paying house tax.
Statistics obtained by The Goan from the power department revealed that the total power consumers registered with the electricity department and consuming power in the jurisdiction of civic body comprising Margao and Fatorda is pegged at over 47,318 “ including 22,804 consumers in Margao and 24,514 in Fatorda.
Comparatively, municipal officials put the total number of households, including commercial establishments, registered with the civic body for the purpose of house tax, between 40,000 to 45,000.
This only goes to throw light on the bitter fact that hundreds, if not thousands of households, including commercial establishments, are not registered with the civic body. This question has come to the fore after the civic body started imposing sanitation or garbage fees on households without and survey or data.
The discrepancy has again brought to the fore the same old question whether law abiding citizens, whose households are registered with the civic body, are required to pay more than the illegal households and business establishments operating in the city without paying the mandatory house tax and trade license.
That there’s a huge discrepancy in the number of legal commercial establishments and those operating sans the mandatory trade license is evident by the fact that the number of establishments registered with the Margo civic body are less compared to the city’s status as the State’s commercial capital.
MMC Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai was not available for comments as she is presently out of station. She will soon have to seriously deal with closed households, which do not find it necessary to pay sanitation fees.
The civic babus pointed out that there may be hundreds of households, which may be registered with the civic body, but have not been occupied till date. Many apartments have been purchased as part of investments, but are not occupied. However, many of these owners have received notices to pay the sanitation fees “ a move vehemently opposed by the owners.
