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.
