The meeting of the Margao Municipal Council discussing the budget estimates for the financial year 2016-17. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Margao City Fathers on Friday in one voice demanded that the government stop collecting Octroi from fuel and leave the subject to the civic bodies as mandated by law, even as the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) passed a Rs 4.71 crore surplus budget, with a provision made to review the tax of advertisement and signages.
At the Council meeting chaired by Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesdai on Friday, councillors cutting across party lines supported a proposal mooted by the chairperson to get back to the civic bodies the power to levy Octroi on fuel. In fact, they supported the initiative of the chairperson to call a meeting of chairpersons of all the municipal councils in Margao, to demand the return of the power to levy Octroi to the civic bodies.
Justifying the resolution, the chairperson said the government has been dilly-dallying in dispatching the Octroi installments to the civic body, saying that the civic body is yet to receive Octroi installments from the government of the last financial year.
The Council adopted a resolution to revise the fees on advertisements and signages by around 15 per cent, with the chairperson justifying the decision, saying the Council had not revised the advertising rates for years now.
Perhaps for the first time, the Council has decided to bring both electronic and conventional advertisement boards installed at the Nehru stadium and outside under the tax net. Chief Officer Siddivinayak Naik justified the decision saying that the stadium does not even permit the municipal staff to enter inside and carry out measurements of the construction activity.
MMC Vice Chairperson Doris Texeira picked holes in the budget estimates prepared by the Municipal administration, while Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai asserting that the Municipal administration has grossly failed to mop up revenue from the advertising hoardings.
Incidentally, barring a couple of City Fathers, most of the councillors were seen as mute spectators during the discussion on the budget estimates.
