The Pioneer 23.04.2013
Short-staffed RMC to outsource tax collection
On the first day of February this year, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation had taken a ‘revolutionary’ step, introducing a dedicated van for holding tax collection. It is equipped with a WLL number 2100164 and receives request from common men for paying holding taxes. The van then moves to their doors and collect tax.
Now here is another peculiar move of the RMC. The civic body is mulling to outsource the responsibility of collecting holding taxes to private organisation. The tender for the same will be floated soon.
“A decision to this effect was taken in the last meeting of the standing committee of RMC. Now we are planning to outsource it to private organizations. But before we do that we have to get some documentation done. We are preparing a database of all holding tax payers and the amount of the taxes due on them. After preparing relevant database, we will outsource it to private organisation,” said Deputy Administrator of RMC Shailendra Kumar Lal.
The private agencies however will not have the power to create holding. Because there are many technical issues associated with this, according to the Deputy Administrator. Within three months they will start collecting holding taxes.
With this announcement of outsourcing the responsibility of collecting holding taxes to private parties, there are at least two of civic body’s responsibilities - including the holding taxes - that have been outsourced.
Earlier, about two years back, the civic body had outsourced the responsibility of ensuring the cleanliness of Ranchi to a private waste management firm A2Z. The company has been under perennial criticism for its less then adequate services.
Do these two steps indicate that the civic body is choosing to withdraw itself from various responsibilities by outsourcing them? And also do they suggest that the civic body in future may outsource other responsibilities also?
RMC’s PRO Naresh Sinha replied to the questions saying that the body had no option but to outsource the responsibility. He also hinted that there might be many more outsourcing of responsibilities.
“We are acutely short-staffed. We have only 36 tax collectors to look after 55 wards –this implies every tax holder has to deal with around 4,000 houses. We have only one zonal supervisor to look after the
two zones (city is divided into two tax collection zones). He is due to retire in June. We have only two revenue assistants who look after many
departments simultaneously. And with people of city being as non-cooperative as they are we have no option but to outsource the responsibility of collecting holding taxes,” he said.
He also said that the government had disallowed recruitment of personnel at RMC and not less than 50 staffs are retiring on yearly basis. With such scenario it is natural to expect outsourcing many other responsibilities.
