Civic bodies deprived of tax funds

hyderabad:all the 12 municipalities in ranga reddy district have been deprived of professional tax running into crores of rupees collected by the commercial taxes department. though the amounts have been deposited in the district treasury, they cannot be withdrawn without the commercial taxes department staff showing specific bills collected from each of the municipalities.since the commercial taxes department does not have enough staff, this has not been done. each of the 12 civic bodies in the district would have got at least rupees one crore if there was proper coordination between the municipal administration and the commercial taxes department. the commercial taxes department, which was entrusted with the job of collecting professional tax, collected it from the residents of various municipalities.the tax amount thus collected was also deposited in the district treasury. as per the rules laid down in the go, ms no. 544 (revenue) dated 12-7-99, about 95 per cent of the professional tax collected should be reallocated directly to the respective local bodies.though huge amounts of tax were collected during the year 2000-2001, the local bodies in the district could not accrue the benefits, largely due to memo no. 25976/pc-1/2000-1 dated 12-12-2000 issued by the government. the memo made a provision for the appointment of commercial tax officers (cto) as nodal officers to each district to coordinate the efforts and ensure the flow of funds to local bodies. in the case of ranga reddy district, the laborious process involved in the reconciliation of tax collections resulted in the deprivation of funds to the civic bodies.the shortage of staff in the commercial taxes department proved to be a bottleneck. because of this, the municipalities have been deprived of their share of the professional taxes collected. the tax amounts would have helped municipalities like alwal, vikarabad and tandur, which are increasingly finding it difficult to pay even salaries to their staff.as for other municipalities, amounts to the tune of rupees one crore each would have helped them take up developmental programmes like drinking water supply schemes, laying of roads, and other civic amenities.