PANAJI : Commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji Deepak Desai on Tuesday appointed a 10-member team with Dr Geeta Nagvenkar, the deputy Commissioner of the CCP as its overall in-charge, and Paulo Rodrigues, accounts and taxation officer of the CCP as the team in-charge for recovery of various dues of the corporation to be paid by the citizens as well as the central and the state government departments.
The team which includes a recovery officer, municipal inspectors and a lower division clerk, will have Gopal Malik, an advocate as its part, who will give advice in the matter.
The personnel of ex-servicemen will also be appointed to form part of this team, as per an order issued by the CCP commissioner.
The order also maintains that the team will brief the CCP commissioner everyday at 5.30 pm with regards to its daily action/ status of recovery. ‘The Navhind Times’, in its March 4 issue had brought out the details about pending dues towards the CCP, stating that the CCP is lacking teeth to recover dues amounting to Rs 37.34 crore, including unallocated government grants from the directorate of municipal administration. The house-owners in the city, as well as state and central government departments, as on March 3, 2017, are yet to pay Rs 10.62 crore to the corporation towards their house tax.
“After going through the records of the taxation section of the corporation, it is noted by me that the citizens are not paying regular taxes to this corporation for one or the other reason when huge amount of dues are pending for collection including from state government and the central government departments,” the order stated, pointing out, “The corporation has taken various steps to recover the dues of property taxes by issuing notices to the defaulters. However, the dues are increasing day by day.”
In an accompanying note, Desai said the various dues towards the corporation includes those related to trade tax, house tax, property tax etc.
“This corporation is planning to take up a drive for collection of dues. However, there is confusion regarding what action can be taken against the defaulters on non-payment of taxes and other dues,” the note added, pointing out, “In such circumstances, legal advice is sought with regards to the steps and action to be taken on the defaulters for speedy recovery of the dues to improve financial position of this corporation.”
The note further maintained, “The steps and action to be taken may be specified as per the City Corporation Act, 2002 and procedure to be followed under the Act,”
“This may be taken on top priority,” the note concluded.