DNA:
Mumbai: Friday, 20 February 2015.
Has your
vehicle dealer paid octroi to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)
before you purchased your car or bike? A Right to Information (RTI) application
revealed that fake octroi receipts were used to clear vehicles at the octroi
posts and even to register them at the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).
The
revelation, says RTI activist Pramod Lokare who pursued the issue, could just
be a tip of the iceberg. Over a period of two months, from November to December
last year, alone 10 fake octroi receipts were found under Andheri RTO, wherein
217 two-wheelers were brought inside Mumbai limits only to be sold to
unsuspecting customers.
In Mumbai,
there are three RTOs and five road octroi posts at Dahisar, Mulund West, Mulund
East, Airoli and Vashi. Apart from these locations, there are octroi squads and
posts at railway stations too.
"There
may be a bigger scam and racket behind this entire thing involving some
officials. I have been pursuing this matter, asking RTOs as well as BMC on how
many fake receipts they get during vehicle registration process. But BMC has
been non-cooperative on the subject and provided me with false information. It
only shows that the department officials are least bothered about corruption
and loss of revenue, that could well be in crores," said Lokare.
As per the
RTI reply, Andheri RTO suspected 43 octroi receipts to be fake and had sent it
for verification; BMC confirmed 10 of them to be fake, wherein octroi payment
was evaded by a bike dealer.
"I have
already written to the BMC commissioner to look into the issue, after all it is
about revenue loss to the public exchequer. Trucks loaded with vehicles cannot
escape one's notice. But it is the civic body that has to act and come out with
a solution," said Mahesh Zagade, Transport Commissioner, Maharashtra.
Milin Sawant,
Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Assessment and Collection Department, BMC said,
"Whenever we find cases of octroi evasion and fake octroi receipts, First
Information Report is filed under the relevant sections."
However, he
refused to respond to the question on what measures BMC has been taking to plug
the pilferage of revenue. When asked about the measures, Sawant replied:
"I cannot reply to this general question on what measures we
undertake."
The fact is
that BMC has failed to keep octroi mafia under check. In 2007, the octroi mafia
had even tried to exert pressure to get former Joint Municipal Commissioner V
Radha transferred as she had taken them head-on to curb pilferage of octroi
revenue. She had even received death threats for being a no non-sense person on
the subject. In the same year, BJP corporator Manoj Kotak was attacked by the
octroi mafia for attempting to expose "octroi scam".
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