Kolkata, Sept. 21 -- A Rs 1869.43 crore mismatch in KMC's property tax balances has been flagged by the CAG, which also found a two-year pendency in the civic body's internal audit and said its Municipal Accounts Committee was not constituted annually as required.
The discrepancy emerged during CAG's performance audit covering 2015-16 to 2020-21. The audit found that KMC's property-tax closing balance for 2018-19 was Rs 4787.49 crore, while the opening balance recorded for 2019-20 was Rs 2,918.06 crore - a difference of Rs 1,869.43 crore. KMC did not furnish a specific reply on the variation or the steps taken to reconcile the difference.
The CAG found similar discrepancies in other years. The difference was Rs 267.26 crore in 2016-17, Rs 325.04 crore in 2017-18, Rs 331.50 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 51.69 crore in 2020-21. The audit said such huge differences indicated "poor record-keeping".
The audit also flagged gaps in KMC's advertisement revenue records. The civic body collected Rs 23.98 crore in advertisement licence fees between 2015-16 and 2019-20, but maintained arrear and current demand records only up to 2019-20 and did not furnish data for 2020-21. The CAG said the absence of demand details made it difficult to monitor advertisements, including unauthorised displays after licence expiry and revenue loss due to non-renewal of licence fees.
On property-tax recovery, KMC collected Rs 40.07 lakh in penalties during 2015-16 to 2020-21. It also collected interest on arrears but did not furnish the amount.
The CAG also found that KMC's internal audit had been conducted only up to 2018-19 as of March 31, 2021, leaving a two-year pendency.
Further, the Municipal Accounts Committee was constituted only twice during the six-year period, contrary to the requirement for annual constitution.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.