the goan I network
MARGAO
Has Margao Municipal Council’s guns directed at the commercial establishments, including banks and institutions, fallen silent in the new calendar year?
It seems so, going by the track record of the last two months as not a single case of sealing of commercial premises have been reported in the new calendar year. Unlike last year, when sealing of commercial premises, including banks and malls, was the norm than an exception, sealing has suddenly vanished from the vocabulary of the Margao civic body this year.
And, the reason may be not far to seek. With the managements of two nationalised banks dragging the civic body to the court for recovering arrears under the threat of sealing their premises, the civic body seems to have decided to go slow, more so when it comes to sealing of the premises and recovery of rent dues from the establishments with retrospective effect.
That’s not all. The Municipal retainer is also believed to have sounded a word of caution to the Municipal officials when it comes to sealing the establishments when it comes to non-payment of rent with retrospective effect. Sources in the corridors of the Margao Municipality informed that the civic body had also received a RTI application, with a specific query demanding to know the provision of the Goa Municipalities Act which empowered the civic body to seal the premises for non payment
of tax.
Officials in the know informed that with the civic body treading a cautious path with two banks dragging the Municipality to the court, the revenue recoveries from the head rent from shops and business establishments have suddenly hit a low this year.
Unlike last year, when the sealing operations paid rich dividends when it helped to bring in handsome revenue to the civic body, running into lakhs of rupees, the ground reality looks different this year. A senior MMC official informed that the MMC team used to get lakhs of rupees as revenue from the commercial establishments on a single day, thanks to the fear generated by the Municipality’s much-publicised sealing exercise at the last quarter of the last calendar year.
“The MMC had earned revenue, ranging from Rs 10-20 lakh with commercial establishments and financial institutions making a mad rush to the civic body to avoid sealing of their premises. The situation has somewhat changed,” the official said, adding ‘while sealing of premises was literally the order of the day last year, nothing has been heard on the sealing front this year’.
Incidentally, the last time the Margao Municipal Council had sealed shops and establishments were in and around the Margao new market area. Sources said the sealing exercise had ruffled many a political feather, literally prompting Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai and Chief Officer Siddivinayak Naik to go to the town giving a month’s time for the establishments to pay their tax as well as rent dues.
