MMC ‘lax’ in bringing illegal structures under tax net

MARGAO
All seemed quiet in the corridors of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) on the contentious question of bringing thousands of illegal and unassessed houses under the house tax net.

Neither the much-talked-about Geographic Information System (GIS) survey is underway in the city as announced by the government nor has the Margao municipality implemented the survey report it conducted in the municipal markets to date. The previous GIS survey report and similar reports compiled by the MMC over the years seemed buried under the dusty cupboards inside the heritage municipal building.

When the MMC bulldozed its way with the 50 per cent hike in garbage fees, beginning from the current financial year on April 1, drawing brickbats from honest taxpayers, the civic body and the powers that be controlling the Council rushed to assuage ruffled feathers, promising to bring all illegal and unassessed houses under the tax net.

There were not many takers for the MMC’s assurances, with the bitter experience when surveys on illegal and unassessed houses, besides government circulars and directives on bringing unassessed households under the tax net, were all confined to the dusty record books.

The situation may be no different now. When sincere taxpayers protested over the hike in fees, questioning why the MMC is burdening the honest taxpayers and leaving the illegal houses scot-free, the civic body ordered a survey of the municipal markets to measure the size of the shops before enforcing the new garbage fees on the shopkeepers.

Questions are being raised in the corridors of the municipal building over the fate of the market survey and whether the findings have been implemented to date.

Inquiries have only revealed that the findings of the survey have not been implemented to date, throwing up the question of whether the report will meet a similar fate a la the previous surveys.

When The Goan called up MMC Accounts-cum-Administration Officer Abhay Rane to shed light on the survey conducted in the markets, he was candid in admitting that the same has not been implemented to date.

Inquiries by The Goan have further revealed that a host of surveys and inquiries by MMC have been confined to the dusty cupboard. Blame it on lack of political will to bring the illegal and unassessed houses under the tax net, the survey reports as well as the government circulars all lay buried in the record books.

Otherwise, consider this. The fate of the GIS survey conducted by the MMC during the previous term remains unknown. The survey conducted through an agency by spending lakhs of rupees has not been implemented till date for reasons best known to the city fathers and babus, as a result of which the MMC has been losing previous revenue running into lakhs of rupees from one single municipal ward.

That’s not all. MMC chairperson Damu Shirodkar had justified the 50 per cent hike in garbage fees on sincere taxpayers on the grounds the hike is based on October 1, 2020, government notification mandating civic bodies to increase the same.

The MMC chairperson and the powers that be, however, have conveniently neglected implementing the same notification mandating the civic bodies to the illegal houses and structures.