MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has decided to act tough against fuel companies who have failed to pay their dues to the civic body despite several reminders.

On Tuesday MMC's chief officer Prasanna Acharya ticked off a representative of a petroleum company, who had come to initiate some negotiations over the bill of arrears of rentals amounting to several lakhs. Acharya told the representative to effect the payment of bills first and only then would any negotiations in the matter be considered.

Speaking to TOI, Acharya said that he was determined to recover the outstandings from the petroleum companies "very soon." "We will take stern measures to ensure that the money is recovered," Acharya said.

Two fuel stations of Bharat Petroluem (BP) and two of Hindustan Petroleum (HP) owe an amount of Rs 34 lakhs to the civic body. Sources in the MMC informed that erring fuel companies had failed to pay up their rentals for the land utilized by them since 2001.

Sources further informed that the MMC has not revised the rates of the rentals for the last many years, though it was decided at a council meeting in 2008 to hike the rent of the petroleum companies by 12% annually. The last revision was effected in 2003.