Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Jul 18: U T Khader, minister for urban development and housing, took to task the concerned officials of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) for not taking effective implementation action in the collection of revenues of the MCC including property tax and water bills in the city limits.

Khader strictly warned the officials of MCC to send notice and collect all the pending taxes within two months. He was speaking at the meeting that was organized to assess the progress of MCC at MCC building in the city on Tuesday, July 17.

"If poor people do not pay the water bill on time, their water connection is being cut. Why is this action not taken against the rich? Concerned officials have to take action on instances of this kind. An achievement report, which gives details of the action taken, needs to be submitted by the commissioner to the department," he urged.

More than Rs 1 lac tax each pending from 144 entrepreneurs

One of the officers giving clarification on the question of Khader with regards to non-collection of taxes said, "The target for water bill collection is Rs 48 crore for the fiscal 2017-18 and Rs 32 crore has been collected. Out of the Rs 16 crore that is pending to be collected, Kannur and Bajal panchayats have to pay Rs 2 crore, Ullal panchayat has to pay Rs 50 lac and Mulky panchayat has to pay Rs 60 lacs to the MCC. In addition, Southern Railway has to pay Rs 7 lac and 144 prominent entrepreneurs have to pay more than Rs 1 lac each,"

Khader asked the concerned officer to give complete details of the defaulters and also the reason for non-payment of the water bills.

Give priority to tax collection

Khader heard complaints that tax from several people including prestigious shopping malls of the city is pending, most of the people are not paying double tax and even the advertisement taxes are not paid properly. He said that officials should give prime importance to the collection of taxes and should not neglect such an important issue.

Radhakrishna, a member of MCC spoke and said, "The non-paying of taxes by the people is one of the issues. People who want to pay taxes do not have a proper system. The software of banks and MCC is not matching. This issue is there in Mangalore One also."

Nazeer, MCC commissioner replied to the issue highlighted by Radhakrishna and said, "For the last two years there is no issue in Mangalore One."

Khader advised to call a meeting of prominent people and resolve the issue.

Single Site approval issue

Premananda Shetty, leader of the opposition of MCC, said, "Issue with regards to the approval of single site is still continuing. Zonal Regulations (ZR), Baila and E-governance systems have to be implemented. Special priority should be given to the economically poor people in order to build houses. The fourth phase of the Rs 100 crore grant of the chief minister should be sanctioned. Only Rs 16 crore out of the Rs 131 crore, collected under the Premium FAR (Floor Area Ratio) Fund has been spent so far. Rest of the money is lying with the MCC."

Issues of land conversion, Smart City project, Transferable Development Right (TDR), the opening of the implementation department to prevent loss of revenue were discussed in the meeting.

MLAs Vedavyas Kamath and Bharath Shetty, MLC Ivan D'Souza, Mayor of MCC, Bhaskar K, assistant commissioner of urban development department Ravi, MCC commissioner Nazeer and deputy mayor of MCC Mohammed were present.