MAPUSA
The Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) which has been claiming financial crunch is sitting pretty with Rs 12 crore parked in Fixed Deposit. This was disclosed by the civic authorities to a team of State Finance Commission which visited the council last week.
The revelation came as a surprise to many councillors who have been knocking the doors of the council to take up development work in their respective wards.
“They are saying that there are no funds for development and the money meant for development is parked in Fixed Deposit. This is wrong. It is illegal to keep funds meant for development in Fixed Deposit,” said Shashank Narvekar, councillor of ward 5.
Several other ruling councilors also expressed unhappiness with the decision to keep the funds unutilised.
“We were under the impression that the council is broke. We were told that there was no money for development. There is so much work to be carried out in our wards and this money could have been utilised for the work,” a ruling councillor told The Goan, on the condition of anonymity.
The 3rd State Finance Commission led by its chairman Daulat Hawaldar visited the MMC to assess the performance and financial position of the council. The commission members also interacted with the councillors.
MMC Chairperson, Shubhangi Vaigankar, Chief Officer, Amitesh Shirvoikar, councillors and other senior civic officials were also present for the meeting.
Some councillors informed the Finance Commission team that for the last more than eight years the council has failed to take up assessment of house tax thus robbing much of revenue to the civic body.
The issue of around 142 shops in the municipal market which is embroiled in a legal wrangle and the failure of the council to collect rent from them for the last 20 years was also raised in the meeting.
Stressing the importance of working on a revenue model, the State Finance Commission Chairman Daulat Hawaldar said if the council fails to generate revenue then the government will be constrained to release funds from the 15th Finance Commission.
The commission urged the civic body to take maximum advantage of the assets it owns to generate revenue and become self-sufficient.
The State Finance Commission officials told the council that Mopa airport was going to be made operational very soon and since the nearest market to the airport was Mapusa, the civic body has to gear up to take advantage of the situation.
The commission also cautioned the council of utilising funds from the group provident fund (GPF) and directed the civic body to pay pending GPF monies to three of the retired staff.
The finance body also informed the council that the issue of octroi was raised by almost all the councils and the government was seized of the matter.
