Thane: The estate department of the Thane Municipal Corporation has come under the scanner from its own panel of auditors for non-recovery of rent from nearly 19 public facilities across the city.
An internal audit report released recently shows nearly Rs 3.64 crore as defaults from tenants who have occupied commercial galas in some of the structures owned by the corporation in the financial year 2014-15. The estate department is assigned with the task of collecting rent from these tenants who have been assigned the spaces for various commercial purposes.
Some of the spaces whose rent defaults are pending include some of the ward committee premises, the stadium in Thane along with other premises owned by the corporation across the nine wards in the city. The highest volume of rent default is from Wagle ward amounting to around Rs 74 lakhs while nearly around Rs 63 lakhs is expected to be collected from the Naupada ward committee premises.
The estate department may not be a major source of revenue for the administration, but any under-achievement of collections, especially the ones pointed out in the 2015 audit, directly impacts its annual target, informed a municipal official. Of all the income sources in the department like renting of lake premises, BSUP flats, rental housing tenements, erection of temporary stages on ground, the volume of rental for its commercial units across the city remains the highest.
The total earning from the department has gradually escalated from a modest Rs 2.49cr in 2013-14 to Rs 10 crore last fiscal. In the current fiscal, the administration has earned barely Rs 3.42 cr in the first seven months as against the target of Rs 21 crore, which is not even a quarter of the target amount.
Meanwhile, activists have questioned the TMC's lenient approach towards the poor recovery. "The administration must pull up its socks and pursue the defaulting traders," lamented an activist.
An internal audit report released recently shows nearly Rs 3.64 crore as defaults from tenants who have occupied commercial galas in some of the structures owned by the corporation in the financial year 2014-15. The estate department is assigned with the task of collecting rent from these tenants who have been assigned the spaces for various commercial purposes.
Some of the spaces whose rent defaults are pending include some of the ward committee premises, the stadium in Thane along with other premises owned by the corporation across the nine wards in the city. The highest volume of rent default is from Wagle ward amounting to around Rs 74 lakhs while nearly around Rs 63 lakhs is expected to be collected from the Naupada ward committee premises.
The estate department may not be a major source of revenue for the administration, but any under-achievement of collections, especially the ones pointed out in the 2015 audit, directly impacts its annual target, informed a municipal official. Of all the income sources in the department like renting of lake premises, BSUP flats, rental housing tenements, erection of temporary stages on ground, the volume of rental for its commercial units across the city remains the highest.
The total earning from the department has gradually escalated from a modest Rs 2.49cr in 2013-14 to Rs 10 crore last fiscal. In the current fiscal, the administration has earned barely Rs 3.42 cr in the first seven months as against the target of Rs 21 crore, which is not even a quarter of the target amount.
Meanwhile, activists have questioned the TMC's lenient approach towards the poor recovery. "The administration must pull up its socks and pursue the defaulting traders," lamented an activist.
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