Times
of India: Thane: Thursday, 12 February 2015.
In a
startling revelation, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) does not have a
list of local body tax (LBT) defaulters. This was learnt through the right to
information act. This raises serious questions about the transparency in the
department regarding the raids being conducted. Till mid-January, this year, not
a single notice was issued to defaulters.
Another
lacuna that came to the fore was that out of more than 60,000 traders, only
31,913 shops have been registered. Many felt that since LBT was implemented in
April 2013, the TMC failed to enroll traders under the new tax structure.
According to
an RTI query filed by activist Sanjiv Datta, the TMC replied that the LBT wing
of the corporation was yet to prepare a defaulters list, despite the fact that
the second fiscal was coming to an end this March. ''Since the last two
financial years, the TMC has failed to identify defaulters. This is quite
shocking,'' said Datta.
In reply to
the RTI query, the TMC has claimed that it is in the process of bringing the
unregistered traders under the LBT net and evaluate defaulters. ''According to
the LBT rule, 2010, traders have to submit their account books within three
months after the end of the financial year. Only after that we can check the
documents and zero in on defaulters,'' said an official.
However,
Datta claims that only after he filed the RTI application, the TMC started
issuing notices to shops. TOI is in possession of a few notices issued by the
TMC dated January 14 asking defaulters to submit their papers.
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