PANAJI: Even as the government has collected around Rs 11 crore during the last quarter ending December 31 as infrastructure tax, infrastructure development especially in the villages across the state has been ignored.

Interestingly, a sizable portion of the infrastructure cess is collected from the villages. Source in the Town and Country Planning Department defending the introduction of infrastructure cess said that infrastructure development in the state needs to be taken up on a priority basis as Goa is a tourist destination.

He also said that the budget for infrastructure development keeps on swelling and the government has to raise funds from various sources, hence the infrastructure cess was introduced in 1997.

Senior government officials informed that besides raising funds for infrastructure development, the state receives plenty of funds from the central government, which need to be channelised properly to ensure development of infrastructure in the state.

Prior to the amendment to Infrastructure Tax Bill, the block development offices used to collect the cess through the panchayats and hand it over to the government. The tax was introduced in 1997. The government amended the Bill in 2009, and increased the tax rate, besides changing the stages of collection as well as changing the agency for
collection.

Earlier, the tax was collected at the time of issuing the occupancy certificate, however, now the tax has to be paid at the time of approval.

He also said that the government has changed the collection agency and has empowered the Town and Country Planning Department, PDAs and GIDC in case of industries to collect the tax.

He further said that the collected money is then handed over to the government though a special category called revenue category and then it is upto the government to make the allocation.

Now, the village panchayats want a share of the infrastructure cess so that the infrastructure in the villages can be developed. It may be recalled that there were sustained agitations all over the state especially in villages opposing construction projects as there is tremendous stress on the prevailing village infrastructure and there is a need to first develop the infrastructure to meet the requirements of the future.

A sarpanch on condition of anonymity said the funds provided by the government are not sufficient to carry out major works of improving the infrastructure in the villages.

He said that they have to keep asking the government for funds, further questioning, "How are we to develop the infrastructure if we have no funds?"

"The infrastructure needs to be upgraded keeping in mind the growing population; however, we are still using the same infrastructure that was developed some 20 years back," he added.

However senior officials at the Town and Country Planning Department said that ever since the tax was introduced, the panchayats were only collecting the cess on behalf of the government and said that the panchayat have to raise their own funds through house tax, and licence fees.

The Chorao sarpanch said the village panchayat is hardly able to raise any funds as there are very few construction projects coming up in the village while a few lakhs are raised through house tax collection.

On the other hand ZP member, Mr Jayesh Salgaonkar said there is a need to develop infrastructure especially in the villages, however, the funds are not
sufficient.

"For example, Rs 4 lakh are given for garbage collection, however, this money is not sufficient for even six months, after that what is to be done?"
he questioned.