PANAJI: A few days after the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) stumbled upon the fact that the amount collected as house tax was being siphoned off, now, CCP mayor Carolina Po has revealed that the amount being siphoned off has run into lakhs of rupees. It maybe pointed out here that following this, the Panaji civic body had suspended one Altaf Shaikh who had been entrusted with the job of recovery clerk since the last two and half years.

These developments also come at a time when the CCP has claimed that its coffers are almost empty and was forced to revoke its employees’ salaries to the 5th Pay Commission levels.

“We have already found that house tax entries worth a lakh of rupees has been deleted from our records. This money was collected by the CCP during the period of April-May in 2008,” the mayor said.

However, opposition corporator Surendra Furtado alleged that at least Rs 25 lakh worth of house tax payments have been siphoned off by the culprits over the last two-and-a-half years.

On preliminary inquiry, two cases were found wherein CCP receipts of Rs 5,500 each were issued to residents, but not entered into the revenue books. “If Rs 10,000 can be siphoned off in a day, then the culprits could have stolen at least Rs 25 lakh over such a long period of time. This operation cannot be done by one person. There are definitely more people involved. The suspended employee should be terminated from service. Then only will he spill the beans. If he is just suspended from service, he will sit quiet,” Furtado said, adding, “No employee will dare do such things without the blessings of ruling corporators.”

Po refuted these allegations. “Certainly, there are others involved in this racket as he (Shaikh) would not be carrying it out all by himself. But, I can vouch that there are no corporators involved in the racket,” she said.

Commissioner Elvis Gomes said that the inquiry into the racket is well in progress. “We are verifying each and every entry over the last two-and-a-half years. We have downloaded the entire list of house tax entries and are verifying whether the party paid the house tax, because the entry against it shows a zero amount,” he said.

Demanded that the corporation of the city of Panajiplace the CAG’s audit report for 2007-08 for discussion at the council meeting, he said, “Why has the CCP not placed the CAG report before the council for discussion? It is time the government steps in.”