MUMBAI, March 5: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's standing committee chairman Sardar Tara Singh today advocated an out-of-court settlement to recover a major portion of Rs 427.12 crores arrears owed to the BMC to erase the heavy budget deficit.Making his observations on the 1998-99 budget, Singh said, "The committee cannot permit any exorbitant hike which will overburden citizens. Already various taxes by the state and central government budgets are causing immense hardships."Singh pointed out that the BMC, over the years, had accumulated heavy arrears of property taxes, wheel tax, water tax, among others. Besides, various litigations had put a spanner in the recovery task, he added."If vigorous steps are taken each year, I'm sure our budget estimates shall not be in heavy deficit in future," affirmed Singh, while criticising the "inept officials of the legal department" for failing to get the disputes settled.Singh also called for strict vigilance and adequate precautions in pluggingloopholes in the octroi collection system. "Malpractices in the issuance of `N' forms, undervaluation and underweighing of goods are the main reasons for leakages in octroi collection," he felt. In the BMC's budget estimates for 1998-99 presented to the standing committee by municipal commissioner Girish Gokhale earlier this week, a proposal has been made to nearly double public taxes and defer payment of ex-gratia to the municipal workers. Gokhale said the `unpleasant decision' which he had to take on the two proposals would wipe out the all-time high deficit of Rs 376.09 crore.
