Nagpur: It has now become crystal clear that the ‘great’ Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is tottering under unprecedented financial crisis. And the condition is deteriorating further and further with every passing day. So much so that the NMC is now seeking fresh loan of Rs 25 crore from Bank of Maharashtra, not for any development work but for paying old debts.
The top NMC bosses are leaving no stones unturned to improve the finances but the efforts are falling short as is revenue shortfall. The LBT phenomena forced the NMC to look bottom of the barrel. Even though the State Government has dumped the LBT and brought cheers to the traders the move brought more tears for the NMC. The civic body that once pocketed Rs 400 crore annually through Octroi system abysmally failed to reach even near to the target in LBT regime. In 2012-13, NMC filled its coffers by a whopping Rs 437 crore through Octroi while in the six months of this financial year the revenue target could reach at just Rs 160 crore. And, now with the scrapping of LBT, hopes of recovery of this tax fading day by day.
The Tax Assessment Department is scanning defaulters of this tax and serving them with notices in the hope of recovering ‘something better than nothing.’ Another despairing aspect that is leaving NMC bosses red-faced is that the State Government is compensating the civic body with only Rs 30 in place of LBT scrapping. In this situation, NMC is not even in a position to meet its expenditures forget the salaries of employees, on time.
Now, all eyes have focused on the steps the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the son of the soil, initiates to bail out the ‘Great’ Nagpur Municipal Corporation from financial turmoil.
