Southern States - Kerala   

Pressure on civic body to improve tax collection

By T. Nandakumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nov. 14. The Government decision to raise the taxes collected by local bodies has brought fresh pressure on the City Corporation to augment tax collection which has been impeded by acute staff shortage.

Officials fear that the proposed tax hike would have little impact on the overall financial position of the Corporation unless the collection system is reformed. The Corporation is reportedly toying with the idea of entrusting tax collection to Kudumbasree units.

The revenue receipts from taxes and levies last year totalled only Rs. 22 crores while the annual demand for establishment expenses alone works out to Rs.21 crores. The Corporation had toyed with the idea of a mid budget tax hike last year to stave off the financial crisis but the proposal was shelved.

The monthly expenditure of the local body had gone up from Rs. 80 lakhs to Rs. 170 lakhs over the last few years following the devolution of powers from the State Government and the merger of five suburban panchayats. Officials say the revenue-expenditure gap is over Rs. 40 lakhs.

The 2001-02 budget had proposed introduction of registration and service charges for wedding halls, tutorials, private hospitals and computer institutes to augment revenue generation. The new tax was expected to net Rs. 3 crores but in the absence of manpower and proper follow up action, the proposal failed to yield results. An intensive drive to augment advertisement tax revenue also met with failure.

Besides, a staggering amount running into crores of rupees remains to be recovered from Central institutions like the Railways and Telephones, the military camp at Pangode and various other establishments in the city. The Mayor, J. Chandra, said repeated efforts to recover the service tax from these institutions had failed. "We issued notice and held several rounds of discussions but to no avail,'' she admitted.

In a bid to sort out the issue, the Mayor sought the intervention of the Urban Development Minister, Anandkumar, during her recent visit to New Delhi for the Mayors' conference. The Minister is reported to have advised initiation of prosecution proceedings against tax defaulters.

Senior Corporation functionaries say there has been no effort to augment the staff strength which was last fixed in the 1970s.

While there are 81 wards, there are just 70 sanctioned posts of bill collectors. With most of the posts lying vacant for years, the Corporation had to appoint staff on a temporary basis from the employment exchange.

"This is a big financial drain on the civic body's depleted coffers since they leave after six months, just when they have got the hang of the job,'' says a senior official. The crucial post of Revenue Officer is also lying vacant after the incumbent retired. The PA to the Secretary has been put in charge but officials warn that unless the key post was filled immediately, revenue collection efforts would suffer a setback.

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