MARGAO
In a bid to bring business establishments operating in the commercial capital without trade licence under the tax net, the Margao Municipal Council has embarked on an ambitious exercise to issue provisional trade licence to illegal establishments to mop up additional revenue.
That’s not all. The civic body has also decided to assess the non-assessed houses and buildings dotting the city for the purpose of house tax collection without bestowing any legal rights to the occupants.
The moot question that, however, remains unanswered is whether the exercise can serve the desired purpose without the back up of any survey or data in possession of the civic body on the number of illegal houses and commercial establishments located in the city.
A glance at the public notice issued by the Margao Municipality reveals that the civic body has left the option to the parties, including the households and owners of commercial establishments, to approach the Municipality for the trade licence and house tax. Questions are indeed being raised in the corridors of the civic body whether the illegal house owners and establishments without trade licence will come forward to pay the taxes when they have been doing the business illegally for years.
When The Goan contacted MMC Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai to find out whether the civic body expects the owners of illegal houses and commercial establishments to come in droves to take the provisional licenses based on the public notice, she said the civic body has only made a beginning. “Tomorrow, the Municipality should not be blamed by the households or shop owners that though they were ready to pay the taxes, the civic body has not given them the provisional licenses without bestowing them the rights,” Babita said.
The Chairperson, however, pointed out that the civic body has plans to conduct a GPS powered survey in 1-2 Municipal wards, through an agency certified by the government to compile data of illegal households and establishments in the city. “Since the survey may turn out a costly affair, we intend to start the exercise in one or two wards where the concentration of commercial establishments and households are more,” Babita added.
Sources in the civic body informed The Goan that officials of the MMC taxation section had recently conducted an exercise around the flyover area of the city, only to find many commercial establishments operating without the mandatory trade licence. It had
also come to light that commercial establishments were operating in premises meant for garages.
