UlBs' officers in favour of increase in holding tax

The meeting of the Fourth State Finance Commission was held at the RDC (Southern Division) office here on Wednesday to take stock of the development works and projects implemented during the post-Phailin period in the region and utilisation of grants sanctioned for the purpose.

Commission president former IAS officer Chinmaya Basu discussed threadbare with the representatives and Executive Officers of 40 local bodies (NACs and Municipalities) about the problems they encounter and the status of various ongoing development works along with fiscal and other constraints if any.

According to information, the report of the Fourth State Finance Commission would be submitted to the Fourteenth Finance Commission constituted by the Government of India for consideration. In view of this, the meeting of the State Finance Commission seemed to be crucial.

During the financial year 2010-11, the grants sanctioned to these southern region’s local bodies were too meagre to undertake any development work. To elicit expert opinion and constructive suggestions, the State Finance Commission has been constituted taking local intellectuals into its fold under Basu’s chairmanship. Prominent among those who have been inducted into the commission include Prof AP Mohanty and DP Roy as Members and PK Biswal as Member-Secretary and Dr S Kanungo as Joint Secretary.

In his address, Basu sought candid views and observations from the members along with solutions for improvement. RDC (Southern) Bikas Chandra Mahapatra brought to the notice of the members that he has received information that the cleaning and sanitation works in most of the urban local bodies (UlBs) are not being carried out properly and the market complexes constructed at different places are not being properly utilised for the purpose. He also expressed his concern that the grants sanctioned to the UlBs for specific purposes are being utilised for other purposes. The grants should be utilised for the purpose for which it is intended, he cautioned.

Basu also sought opinion of the officers of the UlBs and wanted to know whether the existing holding tax can be increased by the UlBs. All the officers reportedly agreed in favour of increase of the holding tax. Basu stressed the need of effective monitoring of tax collection and its proper utilisation in the best public interest. Some Executive Officers said there are some UlBs where the tax collection is so low that it is even difficult to pay the monthly salary of the staff.

It may be mentioned that the holding tax was increased in the NACs and Municipalities during 1997-99, and since then the tax has not yet been revised.

Observers, however, feel that without developing proper infrastructure and ensuring regular and effective cleaning and sanitation, such increase may not be acceptable to public as most of the public places in each of the urban areas in the State are dump yards of garbage and most of the drains are non-functional.