The demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes has proved to be a jackpot for a number of cash-starved government departments, authorities and institutions. And RMC has also become one among them. like cash and resource-starved civic bodies of many other cities of the country, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has received more than Rs. One Crore in less than a week against different pending bills and taxes.
This is why gone are the days when civic body officials continued crying cash crunch for every small or big public-friendly programme. A senior RMC official said on Thursday that it was a holiday on Wednesday on the occasion of Jharkhand Foundation Day, otherwise the collection figure would have been much glittery.
As per data provided by RMC, the civic body collected Rs 23,06,102 on November 12, which rose to Rs 28,86,796 on November 13 against Property Tax, Saf, Water user charge, Water New Connection, Solid user charge and Municipal license Fee categories. In the same way, the civic body was able to collect Rs 40,89,378.80 against these bills and taxes, and Rs 10,66,855.72 on Thursday. Had Wednesday not a holiday, the total collection till Thursday could have easily crossed Rs. 1.25 Crores seeing the trend.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Vidyanand Sharma Pankaj said on Thursday that allowing citizens to use their old 1,000 and 500 rupee currency notes turned their pending bills and taxes into an opportunity. “We are open to accept old currencies for yet another week, and expect at least matching figure to add in otherwise cash starved treasury of the civic body,” said Pankaj.
A senior JVNl official also said that the pending bill recovery was beyond imagination. “Though exact numbers are not available, I can say that pending bills of less than Rs 20,000-30,000 are getting cleared the most. Even some larger bills have also been noticed getting partially cleared, which is a good sign.
We are accepting older denominations till November 24, and expecting good recovery by then,” said the official seeking anonymity.
Pankaj said that RMC Board meeting was scheduled on Saturday, and a number of pending works with small billing size could be cleared during the meeting, as fund availability remained no more a constraint for smaller requirements.