Towns and Cities

Centre serves show-cause notice on Corporation

Thursday, 06 April 2017 06:33 administrator

The Hindu 05.04.2017

Centre serves show-cause notice on Corporation

Short payment of Rs. 4.03-crore service tax from 2011 to 2015

The Centre has issued a show-cause notice to the city Corporation for short payment of Rs. 4.03 crore in service taxes from 2011 to 2015. The show-cause notice is based on the Annual Financial Statement (AFS) for these financial years.

The local body maintains that this is an inflated figure due to the errors in the financial statements prepared by it.

It has now employed a chartered accountant to sift through the financial statements for these years to correct these errors and reduce the amount that it has to pay in service taxes. The issue came up for discussion in the council meeting held on Tuesday.

The show-cause notices are for short payment of Rs. 3.25 crore from the financial years 2011-12 to 2013-14 and for Rs. 77,91,228 for the financial year 2014-15.

“The service tax is for the various rent collections of the Corporation. However, since all the systems, especially in the zonal offices, are not properly connected together, there have been some discrepancies in the calculation.

Miscalculation

From what we know, this mammoth amount came from calculating the service tax based on the total revenue, instead of just the rent collections. So, we have employed a chartered accountant to get the accurate numbers for these years. It is a complicated work to sift out these amounts,” said Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar.

The service tax for the financial year 2011-12 has now been calculated again and the amount has come down drastically, compared to the earlier calculations. The issue caused a minor uproar among the Opposition councillors, who connected it to the recently presented Corporation budget, and accused the Deputy Mayor of presenting inflated figures in the Budget. However, she hit back saying that the show-cause notice was for the years till 2015 and the recent Budgets did not have such problems.

AMRUT rating

In the credit ratings as part of the Central Government’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the city Corporation has been given a rating of ‘BWR BB,’ as per which it is a local body with “moderate degree of safety and carrying moderate credit risk.”

Mayor promises effective implementation of plans

Tuesday, 04 April 2017 00:00 administrator

The Hindu 04.04.2017

Mayor promises effective implementation of plans

Hubballi-Dharwad Mayor D.K. Chavan making his maiden speech at the municipal council meeting in Hubballi on Monday.KIRAN_BAKALE

Making HDMC financially stronger is priority: D.K. Chavan

Making his maiden speech at the monthly meeting of the Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Council here on Monday, newly elected Mayor D.K. Chavan said that his focus would be on implementing plans and schemes announced in the budget for 2017-18 before his tenure ended.

Reading out his speech, Mr. Chavan said that his priority would be to make the municipal corporation financially stronger by exploiting the available revenue sources and bringing in industrial estates and residential localities under the property tax net.

Additional revenue

Additional revenue would help in expediting development programmes and also in initiating development in the villages that had been brought under the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation, he said.

Mr. Chavan said that programmes would be launched to create awareness on reducing air pollution in the twin cities, banning on plastic carry bags, effective management of solid waste as the twin cities had a long way to go in terms of becoming a Smart City.

Commercial complexes

The Mayor said that the two old commercial complexes of the corporation — one at Broadway and the other at Hosur — had become unfit for occupation and they would be demolished and a new spacious commercial complexes would be built.

The Mayor also promised that his focus would be on getting underpasses built at major junctions and taking up city beautification projects, including development of parks.

Thrikkakara budget focusses on water supply, waste disposal

Wednesday, 29 March 2017 00:00 administrator

The Hindu 29.03.2017

Thrikkakara budget focusses on water supply, waste disposal

Rs. 6 crore for waste management system; drinking water sources to be cleaned up

Drinking water supply and a permanent facility for waste disposal have been given major allocations in the Rs. 139-crore Thrikkakara municipal budget for 2017-18 presented by vice chairman Sabu Francis here on Tuesday. The municipality expects a total revenue of Rs. 153 crore, including Rs. 16 crore carried forward from last year, and a surplus of Rs. 13 crore.

The budget has allocated a total of Rs. 6 crore for a permanent waste management system. Of this, Rs. 3 crore has been allocated for activities like banning of plastic materials, generating alternatives to plastic bags through women’s organisations and other activities, which will mitigate the problem of waste management. The budget said that a waste treatment facility was on the anvil for which another Rs. 3 crore had been allocated. The money will go into building the first phase of the treatment plant.

The budget has set aside Rs. 10 lakh for providing social security health cover for workers involved in waste disposal in the municipal area. Another Rs. 1 lakh has been earmarked for providing workers with gloves, boots, etc. The budget has also focussed on providing drinking water to all the wards in the municipality. A total of Rs. 1 crore has been allocated for cleaning up of drinking water sources that are now lying unutilised. Maintenance of rainwater harvesting facilities and cleaning up of wells are also part of the programme. Considering that there are wards in the municipality that face acute shortage of water, the municipal budget has allocated Rs. 1crore for buying a tanker lorry, for a water purification facility and supplying water to the wards that face chronic water shortage. The budget has also provided Rs. 1.5 crore for a water treatment plant for the Thengode-Manakkakadavu drinking water project. Besides, Rs. 50 lakh has been earmarked for a project to collect water from the Kadambrayar, treating it and supplying it in the municipal area.

Activities to ensure the safety of women and children have been allocated Rs. 2 lakh and further Rs. 2 lakh has been allocated for training women in self-defence. The budget has also set aside Rs. 1 crore for setting up solar panels in all municipal buildings. As part of a campaign to become more nature-friendly, the budget has also set aside Rs. 25 lakh for a rainwater harvesting project.

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