MAPUSA
Urban Development Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday told the Goa Legislative Assembly that rationalisation of taxes in all municipalities was the need of the hour even as a team of auditors has been constituted to audit the accounts of all urban local bodies to tap loss of revenue.
Rane also said that GIS (geographic information system) mapping of all the properties of municipal areas was underway.
“The GIS mapping work has already started in North Goa. The tender process for South Goa is under process. Once this GIS mapping is completed, the taxes will be levied on the actual area of the property mapped and confirmed by the Council. We are not going on legality but our focus is to plug revenue loss,” Rane said while responding to a starred question raised by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai during the Question Hour.
He said the data collected through the GIS survey will help the government to get information on the click of a button and also ensure proper collection of tax.
Challenging the Urban Minister, Sardesai said Margao Municipal Council had conducted a GIS survey on pilot basis of ward 14 in 2017.
He said the survey showed that total structures in the ward were 5,410 but only 4,441 were registered while the total number of commercial establishments was 2,358 as against 1,617 on tax books. Similarly, the total signboards in the ward was 3,960 on books but only 1,400 were registered.
“The annual revenue of the ward could have been Rs 3.16 crores but only Rs 40.30 lakh was being collected which showed the revenue loss to the municipality,” Sardesai pointed out and further asked, “what action the minister would take on these findings”.
Rane admitted that he did not have any information of any GIS surveys done in the past but would check with the department and accordingly take a decision.
Sardesai also pointed out that the survey also showed that there were 700 unauthorised structures in the ward and 300 unauthorised residential units.
He said several slum areas and people staying in government quarters do not pay tax and cause loss of revenue to the government.
He further said during the pandemic when people lost jobs and businesses collapsed, the Margao municipality hiked garbage tax by 50 percent.
He demanded from the minister that he will not increase house tax in Margao and revoke the hike in garbage tax because only loyal people were paying the tax.
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat said a survey was done in one ward and it was supposed to cover all the other wards.
He demanded the GIS survey should be completed in a time-bound manner and called for rationalisation of tax in all municipalities in the State.
