Coimbatore: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has a backlog of Rs 33crore towards library cess to be paid to the District Library Commission.
Coimbatore district library officer (in charge) N Manikandan said the amount had accrued since 1977. “The local fund audit done five years before had shown that the corporation owed us Rs 33crore, we have also mentioned it to the accounts general,” he said.
The library cess is essentially a component of the property tax10% of itcollected by local bodies such as municipal corporation, village and town panchayats. The cess is the primary source of income to the library and functions such as buying books, newspapers and journals, infrastructure development and maintenance. Pay for contract labourers are also given from the cess, said officials. Policies and plans drafted by the directorate of public libraries would also be realized using the library cess fund, they said.
Manikandan said they had also represented the issue to the local body officials. Though the city corporation has been regularly paying annual cess in the recent past, he said the backlog has been carried over. “As recent as last week they gave us Rs 4.5crore for the financial year 2018-2019. And last year we had represented about the backlog and they gave Rs 50lakh towards it,” he said and added most of it was yet to come.
When TOI asked a senior corporation official about the backlog amount, the official said they would take steps to clear it based on the financial position of the local body. “Based on our property tax collection, we would pay the library cess and simultaneously clear off the backlog,” said the official.
The library officer said the corporation has not been giving them the demand collection balance (DCB), which would mention the amount the local body owes to the library commission. Because of this they were unable to verify whether the amount they get from the corporation was correct. When asked about this, the corporation official said they would take measures to give DCB regularly to the library commission.
Coimbatore district library officer (in charge) N Manikandan said the amount had accrued since 1977. “The local fund audit done five years before had shown that the corporation owed us Rs 33crore, we have also mentioned it to the accounts general,” he said.
The library cess is essentially a component of the property tax10% of itcollected by local bodies such as municipal corporation, village and town panchayats. The cess is the primary source of income to the library and functions such as buying books, newspapers and journals, infrastructure development and maintenance. Pay for contract labourers are also given from the cess, said officials. Policies and plans drafted by the directorate of public libraries would also be realized using the library cess fund, they said.
Manikandan said they had also represented the issue to the local body officials. Though the city corporation has been regularly paying annual cess in the recent past, he said the backlog has been carried over. “As recent as last week they gave us Rs 4.5crore for the financial year 2018-2019. And last year we had represented about the backlog and they gave Rs 50lakh towards it,” he said and added most of it was yet to come.
When TOI asked a senior corporation official about the backlog amount, the official said they would take steps to clear it based on the financial position of the local body. “Based on our property tax collection, we would pay the library cess and simultaneously clear off the backlog,” said the official.
The library officer said the corporation has not been giving them the demand collection balance (DCB), which would mention the amount the local body owes to the library commission. Because of this they were unable to verify whether the amount they get from the corporation was correct. When asked about this, the corporation official said they would take measures to give DCB regularly to the library commission.
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