Book Municipal Commissioner, demands Congress MLA Thakre

 

 

 

Vikas Thakre, Congress MLA from West Nagpur, has alleged ‘financial dupery’ of Rs 2,597.3128 crore by way of recovery of various taxes by Nagpur Municipal Commissioner (NMC) despite receiving Goods and Services Tax (GST) aid from the Central and State Governments. While seeking refund of taxes so collected to the people, he also demanded to book Municipal Commissioner and other officers of NMC. Thakre also submitted a 130-page complaint to Amitesh Kumar, Commissioner of Police, in this regard. Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Thakre said that NMC had received GST aid of Rs 3,851.51 crore since July 2017. “The civic body received the aid in lieu of subsuming of various taxes including water supply and sanitation, town planning, street-lights, road, solid waste management, market maintenance, advertisement fees etc.

 

Despite this, NMC administration continued to recover various taxes from the people and committed financial dupery of Maharashtra Government,” he alleged. According to the Congress MLA, since 2016-17, NMC recovered Rs 187.045 crore as octroi/local body tax, Rs 1,156.1067 crore as property tax, Rs 844.3295 crore as water tax, Rs 49.8316 crore as market tax, and Rs 360 crore as stamp duty from the people. “The total amount of taxes recovered from the people is Rs 2,597.3128 crore. NMC need not have collected these taxes from the people of Nagpur. As administrative head, it was the responsibility of Radhakrishnan B, Municipal Commissioner, to protect the interests of the people. However, he did not stop such recovery saying that other taxes did not get subsumed in GST,” Thakre alleged. Similarly, all the municipal corporations in Maharashtra continued recovering various taxes from the people. According to Thakre, he wrote to all these municipal corporations but none responded to his letters in this regard. “It is mandatory for the administrative officers to respond to the letters of the legislators.

 

However, since this has not been done in this case, I have sent a letter to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, seeking to file Breach of Privilege motion,” he added. Thakre accused the Municipal Commissioner of Nagpur of providing ‘incomplete and misleading’ information. In case of NMC, if the taxes so recovered are not refunded to the people with interest, Thakre threatened to file a public interest litigation in this regard before the High Court. He sought refund of Rs 2,597.3128 crore of taxes recovered, Rs 33.6 crore of advertisement cess, Rs 17.23 crore of advertisement agencies.