After two months of lockdown, Mohali MC losses nearing ₹13 crore

MOHALI: A fund-starved Mohali municipal corporation has incurred losses to the tune of ₹13 crore in the last two months while the district was under a lockdown.

What’s more, the civic body will not even get the goods and services tax (GST) share of ₹10 crore in lieu of octroi, which is a duty levied on various goods entering Mohali that the MC gets from the state government in the form of Punjab municipal fund.

Even the unipole advertisers have refused to pay them the fee for two months amounting to ₹1.72 crore. They have, instead, written to the civic body asking for a waiver citing no revenue earned. Civic body has referred the case to the local bodies department for approval. There are around 102 unipoles affiliated with six companies in the city.

Neither the ₹10 lakh rent nor the tehbazari fee (license to squat and sell goods in a particular location) that generally amounts to ₹5 lakh per month was collected by Mohali MC.

NO DUTIES, CHALLANS COLLECTED

Other losses incurred include additional excise duty of ₹60 lakh; fee of around ₹7 lakh from road cuts, which is required to lay sewer and water pipes; challan fee of polythene, which is around ₹3 lakh; and building application fee, which comes to around ₹10 lakh for two months.

On account of property tax, residents have just paid ₹10 lakh, which should have been ₹2 crore instead; water bill paid is only ₹5 lakh instead of ₹20 lakh. Every month, Mohali MC spends ₹5 crore on paying salaries, power bills, fuel charges, and maintaining cleanliness in the city.

At present, the civic body is just left with savings of ₹22 crore to meet with various expenditures. MC chief Kamal Kishore Garg said, “It is a nationwide crisis and we have suffered a huge loss. We have asked the state government for funds to carry out development works.” Meanwhile, more than 200 tenders of development works worth ₹30 crore have not been allotted.