the goan I network
MARGAO
Municipal councillors, beware! You may be liable for disqualification under the Goa Municipalities Act if you turn out to be a tax defaulter.
Chief officers of municipal councils are presently on the job of compiling the tax payment details of city fathers following a communique from the office of the Director of Municipal Administration seeking compliance of section 47 of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968.
MMC Chief Officer Ajit Panchwadkar has told the municipal taxation cell to go into the tax books with a clear brief to ascertain the number of councillors who haven’t paid taxes and the tax dues payable by the city fathers to the civic body.
Officials of the taxation section, sources said, have been scanning the tax books to find out the status of tax paid by the 25 municipal councillors.
Section 47 of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968, makes a special provision of disqualification of the councillors for failing to pay taxes due to the council.
It provides that the Chief Officer shall prepare and forward to the Director by the 15th day of April, July, October and January every year a list of all the councillors (including the chairperson and vice-chairperson) who have failed to pay their taxes to the council within two months from the date on which such tax became payable.
Other particulars such as amount due, dates since when it is payable, date of special notice and the amount of tax paid by the councillors and the reasons for the non-payment of the balance, if any, are also required to be submitted to the Director.
The Director may issue a special notice and on failure to produce satisfactory explanation issue and order disqualifying such tax-defaulter councillors.
Section 47 of the Act provides that the Director, after receiving a statement from the Chief Officer, issue a special notice to each councillor, who has failed to pay any tax by the date as per the rules in force, calling upon him to state within one month from the date of the special notice why he should not be disqualified and his office declared vacant.
If the councillor fails to explain to the satisfaction of the Director for the non-payment of the taxes, latter shall issue an order disqualifying such councilor and his office be thereupon declared vacant.
Sources in the Margao municipality informed that the office of the Director of Municipal Administration has apparently made the communique upon receipt of the correspondence from the Audit Bureau.
“We are on the job to ascertain the councillors, if any, who have not paid their tax dues. The report is expected to be compiled in a day or two,” sources in the MMC stated.
