MARGAO
Has the government any plan to lend a helping hand to bail out the beleaguered municipal bodies across the state that are struggling to foot the salary bill, post-abolition of octroi?
Margao Municipal Council isn’t the lone civic body adversely hit by revenue loss after the abolition of octroi. Civic bodies, including the Mormugao Municipal Council, besides Sanguem and Cuncolim bodies, have also been literally struggling to arrange funds for the payment of staff salaries.
When this question was posed to the Director, Urban Development, Gurudas Pilarnekar, in the light of the huge loss of revenue to the civic bodies after the scraping of octroi duty, he said the government was aware of the situation. “It is seriously examining the issue as municipal bodies starved of funds even to pay the salaries. Octroi was once the main source of revenue for the local bodies, but after the introduction of the GST things have changed,” he said.
When The Goan drew his attention to the reported decision taken by the Maharashtra government to compensate the local civic bodies in lieu of the loss of revenue from octroi, Pilarnekar added, “We are also examining the Maharashtra government’s decision. I have called for the details of Maharashtra government’s decision,” he said.
He added: “After conducting a study on the matter, I will submit a report to the government for further action on the matter”.
The government, including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Urban Development Secretary Dr Tariq Thomas and the Director Urban Development, seem to be aware of the financial constraints faced by the urban local bodies in the payment of staff salaries in recent months.
Further aggravating the situation for the civic bodies has been the Covid pandemic. It has badly affected revenue generation in the towns with business hitting an all-time low and households complaining of loss of jobs and employment.
Some of the municipal chief officers, who spoke to The Goan on condition of anonymity, said the civic bodies have already kept the government abreast of their financial problems and the inability to pay the staff. “We hope the government will come out with a formula to bail out the civic bodies. Let us wait and see whether the government will compensate the urban bodies for loss of octroi revenue or partly share the financial burden of the salary bill,” remarked a chief officer.
The Goa Municipal Employees Association has said that the government’s failure to compensate the civic bodies for revenue loss has put them in a tight spot. “The situation has affected the payment of salaries for the employees. The safai karmacharis working for the local bodies have been the worst hit as they haven’t been paid for months,” the association said in a letter to the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis.
The Association had last month served a notice on the Sanguem Municipal Council to clear the three-month salaries of the employees. It had also threatened to strike work in October if the Margao municipality further delayed the disbursement of the September salary.
Even as the Association went on a flash strike at Margao on Thursday over the non-payment of bonus, Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat said the municipal bodies find themselves in a financial crisis over the delay in the payment of salaries and other benefits. “The government has told me that the issue is being examined from all aspects since the local bodies have lost precious revenue after the abolition of octroi,” he added.
