MARGAO
The dust kicked up by the recently held Lok Sabha polls has long settled down, with the election authorities lifting the Election Code of Conduct.
There’s, however, no word or information when exactly the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGDPA) would float the tender inviting bids to collect sopo fees from the wholesale fish market and enrich the PDA coffers.
Indeed, Sopo fee collection in Goa’s lone wholesale fish market has come back to haunt the SGPDA once again.
For, while the sopo collection e-tender which was floated around August-September 2023 was scrapped in December last year, the SGPDA is yet to float a fresh tender to invite prospective bidders to submit their bids for the sopo collection.
While the SGPDA has been collecting the sopo fees departmentally from the wholesale fish traders, questions are raised why a fresh tender has not been floated in the last six months. This question assumes significance not only over the inordinate delay in floating a fresh e-tender, but the delay in floating the tender has caused a loss of revenue to the PDA running into lakhs of rupees, if not crores, via the collection of sopo fees.
For, the e-tender floated by the SGPDA in August-September last year shows that the PDA had fixed an upset price of Rs 3.88 crore as annual revenue by way of sopo collection fees by the contractor.
This means that the PDA was expecting around Rs 32 lakh every month from the sopo fee collecting contractor. Why the delay in floating the e-tender has caused loss of revenue to the PDA was that PDA had expected the contractor to pay an amount of Rs 32 lakh every month, even though the PDA’s collection of sopo fees departmentally has not crossed the Rs 15 lakh per month.
When The Goan called up SGPDA Chairman, MLA Krishna Daji Salkar to shed light on the long-delayed sopo collection e-tender, he was quick to attribute the delay to the intervening Lok Sabha election and the Election Code of Conduct. “The PDA could not proceed with the sopo collection tender since the elections are now over the code of conduct. But, now that the code of conduct is lifted, the PDA is in the process of floating a new tender,” Salkar informed.
On the question why the e-tender floated by the PDA in September last inviting bidders to bid for the sopo fee collection contract was not taken to its logical conclusion, he attributed the situation to the condition in sopo tender that the contractor should have 10 years experience in fishing business/ activities and a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore. “Because of this condition the PDA could not proceed further with many a bidder raising queries on the condition. But, since the government permitted the PDA to delete the controversial condition, the PDA will now float the e-tender afresh,” he said.
Incidentally, the government had reportedly scrapped the 10-year experience in fishing business/ activities way back in December last, with questions raised why the PDA did not rush with the tender before the code of conduct.
