Aurangabad, June 14:
The State's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to submit an action taken or compliance report (ATR) regarding the collection of license fees in the city from April 1. Hence the civic administration has geared up to finalise the draft of the report and submit it soon.
Earlier, the State Government has directed the AMC to collect the fees from the business fraternity in 2013. However, the AMC did not implement it in the jurisdiction. Later on, the PAC warned AMC of delaying the implementation in February 2021.
It is learnt that the 'C' category of municipal corporations in the state had implemented the license fee in their respective jurisdictions. However, the AMC failed to implement it. As a result, the Accountant General (AG, Nagpur) had made an 'unsatisfactory' remark for it. Later on, the proposal of collecting the fee was passed in the AMC general body (GB) meeting in 2018. However, the business fraternity in the city opposed the decision. Later on, in February 2021, PAC questioned AMC for the delay in collecting the fee. In response to this, the AMC stated that it is going to implement from April 1. However, the civic body failed to keep its word. Two days ago, the desk officer Pradeep Patil contacted the AMC and inquired about the license fee and also ordered to submit the compliance report to the state government. Hence the officials of the Assessor and Collector of Tax (ACT) section are finalising the compliance report.
The deputy commissioner Aparna Thete said, " We will have to submit the compliance report. The preparation of the report is in the final stage. The decision will be ought soon. The collection of the fee will be made through the employees of each zone, who are collecting property tax and other tax."
It is hoped that the AMC would get an income of Rs 8 crore per year through the fee. The fee will be collected from small or big businessmen as per the guidelines and instructions were given to AMC by the state government.