By Najam Gilani, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: To enthuse energy in the complacency ridden government sectors and to boost the revenue of its dry coffers, Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) is awarding appreciation certificates along with the cash incentives to the best tax collectors, each from its six zones.
The six tax collectors from its six zones whom the chief administrator of the corporation Captain Robin Bordoloi awarded are: Maniruddin Ahmed from central zone, Sayed Ali from east zone, Poinur Ali from west zone, Upen Kalita from Dispur zone, Digen Patowary from south zone and Urdhab Mohan Das from Lokhra zone.
Speaking to TwoCircles.net on phone from his office in Guwahati, GMC Commissioner Mr Manish Thakur said: The best tax collectors were given a cash incentive of Rs 2,000 each along with the appreciation certificate. The collection was done for the first nine months of financial year 2008-09-which is up to 31st December. All the zones got the individual target and it was set as per the potential of the area. For example; commercial area got higher target in comparison to residential area. The collectors were awarded as per the highest percentage of collection for the given target and sources of revenue were mainly the property tax comprising of general tax, water tax, scavenging tax, light tax and urban tax.
Important to note here is that the GMC doesn’t have a centralized system where the people can come to the office to pay bills, therefore it has to depend on tax collectors and they follow door-to-door tax collection system
Each revenue zone is headed by a Deputy Commissioner. The Deputy Commissioner of the Central zone, Mr Ghulam Mustafa, while speaking to TCN said, ‘it’s the department initiated endeavor to motivate and inspire them, which surely will give a much better result in future.”
As per the sources of GMC office, the revenue which it generates annually is around Rs 16 crore and the maintenance of its obligatory expenditure is pegged at Rs 32.4 crore – that leaves an annual deficit of Rs 16.4 crore. The target set for increasing its revenue within next two to three years is of 100 crores and to achieve this there is a proposal to collect taxes even on Sundays and other holidays.