MARGAO
These revenue statistics are indeed mindboggling and may call for vigorous measures by the Margao Municipal Council to recover the huge outstanding tax arrears.
Consider this. Margao Municipal Council’s salary bill for the month of August has crossed a whopping Rs 1.5 crore figure. The Bill includes the salaries of the employees, honorarium of the City fathers and the arrears, including DA and increments, officials said.
Take note, the Rs 1.5 crore salary bill does not include the daily wages payable to the 200-odd workers employed by the Civic body. If officials are to be believed, the wage bill of the daily wage and contract workers may work out to around Rs 30-40 lakhs per month.
Officials in private say the Civic body may need close to Rs two crore on an average to foot the monthly salary and wage bill of the employees and daily wage workers.
The huge salary bill seemed to have come as strain on the Municipal revenue position. A couple of months ago, the MMC had gone for premature withdrawal of fixed deposit certificate to arrange money for footing the salary bill. In fact, instances are galore when the MMC had resorted to premature withdrawals just to arrange money for paying the salaries over the years.
This time round, the officials are believed to have tapped the salary grant-in-aid received from the government to arrange the salary for the month of August.
On the other hand, the Civic body has been struggling to recover the huge outstanding tax arrears, comprising of house tax, trade license and rent.
Take note, the civic body on an average receive tax revenue to the tune of Rs 5-9 lakh and sometimes even more, but the outstanding tax arrears have not come down to manageable proportions.
Take the case of house tax. The total outstanding House tax arrears as on date is pegged at a whopping Rs 15.63 crore. Add to this figure, the outstanding trade tax arrears put at Rs 2.78 crore and the total arrears works out a huge Rs18-odd crore.
Officials say the MMC had managed to collect house tax amounting to Rs 3.88 crore so far in the current financial year, but the statistics indeed pose a challenge of sorts for the City Fathers and the Civic Babus to manage the outstanding recoveries.
Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes pointed out that the Municipal employee salary bill has crossed the Rs 1.5 crore for the month of August on account of the DA arrears and increments. “All these factors have pushed the salary bill of the last month. We had to utilize the salary grant-in-aid to pay the salaries because of the increase in the salary bill. In the past, we had to go for premature withdrawal of fixed deposit certificate because of the delay in receiving the grant-in-aid, but we again made the FD once the government aid was sanctioned”, he said.
The Chief Officer, however, conceded that the outstanding arrears have been mounting over the last couple of months. “May be tax payment by citizens and businessmen have not been prompt. We are optimistic. Households have time till March 2022 to clear the dues, while we are trying to get the businessmen pay the trade tax”, he said.
Former MMC Chairperson and Councillor Ganashyam Shirodkar said the MMC recovery position is indeed grim. “When revenue amounting close to Rs 20 crore is outstanding, you can very well judge the state of affairs. A situation may come when the Civic body will have to wait for someone to pay tax in order to foot the salary bill or go for premature withdrawals of fixed deposits”, he warned.
Retd officer sought to head
the MMC recovery section
MARGAO: Conceding that the MMC recovery position does inspire confidence, Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes has mulled measures to tone up the recovery position of the Civic body.
In fact, Agnelo said the Civic body has moved the government to depute a retired officer to head the recovery section as the Recovery Officer. That’s not all. The CO has mulled a dedicated recovery cell to concentrate on the revenue recoveries. “We need a full time recovery officer to escalate the huge outstanding recoveries. The situation may improve once the Recovery Officer is deputed and the cell takes shape”, he said.
Pending the appointment of the Recovery Officer, the Chief Officer has decided to send the Margao Municipal workers to the doorsteps of the house tax payers to collect the tax. “Because of the Covid pandemic, many people have been hesitant to visit the Municipality and clear the taxes. We have now decided to constitute teams of workers, which would go to the wards for the collection of the house tax”, he said, adding the Civic body is in the process of the constituting the teams and impart them training how to go about the tax collection at the doorsteps of the people.“The revenue recovery can make the Margao Municipality self-sustaining”, Agnelo added.
