Mangaluru : With complaints received from activists and general public, Mangalore City Corporation during their monthly meeting on Tuesday evening under the leadership of MCC Commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati have decided to probe into alleged irregularities in the tax collected from the citizens through MangaloreOne payment centers.
It has now come to the notice of MCC officials that that the self assessment tax amount payed by the citizens at various MangaloreOne centers have not been entered properly in the computer. Even the payment receipts were not issued properly. It is learnt that the alleged discrepancies in tax money collected by these centers may be over Rs 1 lakh or so. The Commissioner has said that if the allegations are found to be true, MCC will file a police complaint against the MangaloreOne firm for further investigation, and since MangaloreOne’s contract ends this May month, the commissioner wants to probe into all the irregularities committed by this firm before May end.
There is also a problem in probing into this issue, as the records and details of those who have paid their property tax is missing at MangaloreOne centers and the citizens are not sure about the amount that has been misappropriated. Mayor Jacintha Alfred has assured to take stringent action on MangaloreOne centers if they did misuse citizens tax payment money.
In the meantime, MLC Ivan D’souza has also raised his voice stating that a criminal case must be filed against MangaloreOne staff/officials. Noting that major buildings in the city were not paying their property tax, Ivan D’souza has said that MCC is accountable to honest citizens who paid their property tax. Corporator Premananda Shetty, who raised the issue, said the public are in confusion on payment of tax at these payment centers. There should not be any scope for cheating. MCC should answer the citizens on this issue or arrange other reliable payment centers. And if MCC still neglects on this issue it will be a real shame o their part to allow payment centers like MangaloreOne who swindle public money.