The Times of India 04.11.2009

MMC clueless about Rs 1cr tax arrears

TNN 4 November 2009, 06:22am IST

MAPUSA: Even as the Mapusa Municipal Council is grappling with a severe resource crunch, the civic authorities are caught napping over its revenue generating strategies. The civic body has barely managed to pool in Rs 86 lakh as house tax this fiscal so far, considering another Rs 66 lakh which is yet to be collected. Further more, Rs 40 lakh as rent charges are yet to be recovered from various commercial establishments in the city.

In another startling disclosure, as per a statement TOI was privy to, it was discovered that the civic body had failed to tap house tax arrears of more than Rs 1 crore.

The civic authorities, who were clueless on ways to tap the arrears, have managed to collect a measly Rs 20 lakh this fiscal.

The council has now started issuing demand notices (a warning letter with a fine) to defaulters and the collection has begun to trickle in, sources disclosed.

A visibly annoyed chief officer Raju Gawas refused to accept the figures on house tax arrears and the current house tax position prepared by his office. "These figures are not right. I need to go through the records," he said, debunking figures prepared by the council staff.

"From the time I took over in July, the council has collected Rs 47 lakh by way of house tax," he said, adding, "The process is on and I am confident we will also be able to erase more than 50% deficit of the house tax arrears."

None of the officials sounded convincing in their explanation on the poor collection of arrears, but sources disclosed that earlier no serious efforts were made to collect them.

"Part of the problem comes when the premises remain closed. There are many flats which remain under lock and key. There's no way we can approach these owners," said Ramchandra Mandrekar, the accounts taxation officer.

Nevertheless, we have begun issuing demand notices to defaulters and people have started to pay, he added.

Chairperson Rupa Bhakta was equally clueless on the issue. "I do not know about the arrears but I suppose house tax collection is going on smoothly," she said.

The chief officer described various initiatives taken by him to improve the financial condition of the council.

He disclosed that the council had so far collected Rs 10 lakh by way of occupancy fee from new constructions in the city.

He had introduced the concept of occupancy fee soon after taking charge as CO of Mapusa municipality. He had to face stiff opposition from a section of the councillors for introducing the fee.

"Almost all the councils impose occupancy fee in their jurisdictions. It was only in Mapusa where it was not introduced," he said.

The Hindu 04.11.2009

Last date for property tax amnesty extended

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The MCD Standing Committee chairman, R. K. Singhal, on Tuesday announced that the date for availing of the amnesty scheme in property tax has been extended up to December 31.

As a large number of residents’ welfare associations and citizens sent representations to the MCD stating that they could not avail themselves of the amnesty scheme due to the festival season, the civic body has decided to extend the date, said Mr. Singhal.

“Tax-payers have evinced great interest in the scheme. As many as 27,000 defaulting tax-payers have availed themselves of the scheme contributing a revenue of Rs.70 crore,” said Mr. Singhal.

Mr. Singhal said they will now be able to save themselves from penalties, one per cent interest per month and other penal action. “We’ve already launched a survey to detect properties whose owners have not reported for payment of property tax so far. The MCD is also going to embark on a penal drive against defaulting property taxpayers.”

Till October 31, the MCD collected Rs.480 crore in property tax. The collection during the corresponding period last year was Rs.388 crore. “Thus, we collected Rs.92 crore more compared with last year. This growth has been recorded despite a recession. There was an increase in the number of tax-payers this year,” he said.