‘Most Curchorem traders haven’t paid taxes for 17 years’

Margao: Ironic as it is, most of the traders from Curchorem registered with the civic body have not paid trade tax, house tax and rentals to the Curchorem Cacora municipal council (CCMC) for the last at least 17 years, thereby depriving the municipality of its major source of revenue.
Confirming this, the chief officer of the CCMC, Agnelo A Fernandes, told TOI that the arrears due from traders have accumulated to nearly 1 crore.This, despite the directorate of municipal administration (DMA) waiving off interest and penalties on the trade tax from 1997 to 2007, following protests from the traders over what they perceived as “unjust” hike in trade tax.
The CCMC has now initiated the revenue recovery exercise by issuing notices to defaulters. Notices have been sent to several traders having huge amount of arrears to pay up within seven days failing which “necessary coercive steps will be taken to recover the dues, including sealing of your premises without any further notice.”
The notice has also drawn the attention of the defaulters to the audit report dated August 22 which has censured the CCMC for its inaction in revenue recovery. “The overall recovery of all taxes is meager 15.02% which clearly indicates that the council has not taken any sort of action to recover the huge arrears of taxes,” the audit report reads.
Pointing out that CCMC has not received any grants from the government during the year 2013-14, the notice states that in order to get funds from the government, “the council has to show effective recovery, which, till date, is dismal.”
“The audit report was placed before the council in its meeting held on October 15, and it was unanimously decided that the staff go all out to recover the dues and seal the premises of the defaulters after giving them seven days notice period,” the notice signed by Fernandes, reads.
Chief officer of Curchorem Cacora municipal council (CCMC), Agnelo A Fernandes, told TOI that arrears due from traders have accumulated to nearly 1 crore