Government buildings owe Rs 5.41 lakh water tax to CMC

Most buildings are on Deputy Commissioners office premises

Kolar City Municipal Council (CMC), which is accused of negligence in collecting taxes from the public, is struggling to collect water tax dues amounting to Rs 5.41 lakh from 29 government buildings.

Most of these buildings are situated on the Deputy Commissioner’s office premises. Offices and residences of deputy commissioner and superintendent of police are among these 29 buildings.

CMC commissioner Mahendra Kumar told Deccan Herald on Friday that these buildings have to pay Rs. 5.41 lakh, including interest, to the CMC towards the water tax for 2011-12 and 2012-13. The canteen at the district office complex, which tops the list of defaulters, owes Rs 65,024 to CMC. The other major defaulters are cold storage (Rs 57,360)  post-matric girls’ hostel (Rs 42,026) and horticulture department (Rs 31,688).

The CMC has to get Rs 12,096 from deputy commissioner’s office and residence buildings. Most of the other buildings owe at least Rs. 10,000 and, steps are being taken to collect the dues, he said.

Unauthorised hoardings

Kumar said the CMC had complained to the police to take action against those who have put unauthorised hoardings and banners in the city. As police have not taken any action, the civic body was planning to approach court, requesting it to issue necessary directions to police.

Police, he said, had failed to act even against those who had painted advertisements on the walls of a bridge on National Highway-4 on the outskirts of the city.

Kumar said no organisation or individual had paid the fees to the CMC for putting hoardings and banners in the city and, therefore the civic body has lost revenue worth lakhs of rupees.

Penalty

The CMC had issued notices to those who had taken illegal water supply connections to pay a fine of Rs 5,000. However, no one has paid the penalty so far, he added.