Urban News

Source :The Hindu Date : 06.07.2009

MCD to review theatre tax policy

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain has stated that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi would be reviewing the policy of increasing the theatre tax soon with a proposal in this regard having been sent to the Delhi Government about five years ago.

This proposal seeks amendment to the IVth Schedule of the Delhi Municipal Act, 1957, to increase the maximum leviable theatre tax by the civic body on cinema theatres from the present rate of Rs.7 to Rs.10 per show to a maximum extent of Rs.1,000 per show.

However, the Mayor clarified that this upper limit has been envisaged for any future increase and does not necessarily imply that the theatre tax would be increased to Rs.1,000 per show. “The proposal in this regard was sent to the Delhi Government about five years ago. However, this policy amendment also needs to be reviewed in the present circumstances because the cinema industry has been badly hit by competition from the cable and satellite television industry and piracy.”

Source : The Hindu Date : 02.07.2009

MCC to publish list of water bill defaulters

Staff Correspondent

Redressing grievances: Mangalore Mayor M. Shankar Bhat (centre) and Deputy Mayor Rajini Duganna (right) at a water adalat in Surathkal on Wednesday.

MANGALORE: The Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) will shortly publish a list of “chronic defaulters” who owe it more than Rs. 1 lakh towards water charges, Mayor M. Shankar Bhat has said.

Speaking to presspersons at Surathkal on Wednesday, he said the defaulters had not paid their water bills for many years. The corporation would start a drive in August to collect dues from defaulters and disconnect water supply connections in case they did not pay, he said.

The Mayor said that some officials in the corporation had told him that there were 69,842 authorised water connections (consumers) in the jurisdiction of the civic body. Of them, only 43 per cent were paying bills regularly.

Mr. Bhat said that after the spot billing method was extended to all 60 wards in the corporation a year ago, some consumers were getting exorbitant bills. There were instances where domestic consumers had been issued bills of more than Rs. 1 lakh for a certain period. This was owing to a fault in the meters, he said and added that such consumers would not be termed “chronic defaulters”. Those who could be called so were the ones who had never bothered to pay their bills for many years. The list of chronic defaulters comprised both domestic as well as commercial users.

To a question, he said the defaulters owed as much as Rs. 11 crore to the civic body. This amount included Rs. 3.5 crore that the Kannur and Bajal gram panchayats had to pay to the corporation for supplying water from the Thumbe vented dam.

The balance was due from individual defaulters, hotels and other establishments.

The Mayor said the corporation had held a water adalat at its head office at Lalbagh recently.

One more adalat each would be held at its head office and at Surathkal shortly. Consumers whose grievances had been solved at the adalats should pay their bills within the given time. If they failed to do so, the corporation would file civil cases against them.

Replacement

He said that if there were faults in the water meters, consumers should replace them on their own. Quality meters were available in the market for approximately Rs. 800. After replacing faulty meters, consumers should inform the corporation about it and produce a copy of the guarantee card of the meter, he added.