Chattogram City Corporation Mayor Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury is planning for increasing the income of the corporation in the light of the Prime Minister's directive to make the country's city corporations self-reliant. The mayor met with department heads at his Tiger office on Thursday in response to a directive from the prime minister, who convened a meeting of the executive committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday.
Chattogram City Corporation Chief Executive Officer Md Shahidul Alam, Secretary Khaled Mahmud, Chief Revenue Officer Nazrul Islam, Chief Education Officer Lutfun Nahar, Law Officer Md. Jasim Uddin, Chief Engineer Rafiqul Islam, Private Secretary to the Mayor Md. Abul Hashem Chief Health Officer (Acting) Dr Md Ali, Supervising Engineer Akbar Ali, Jhulan Kumar Das were present.
CCC Mayor Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said that it is not possible to run the civic service activities of the corporation only on government grants and bulk allocations. In order to make the corporation self-reliant and self-sufficient, there is no alternative but to take tax cover and income generating projects without looking to the government.
He also asked the real estate department to immediately submit the accounts of all the properties of the corporation to him through the chief revenue officer. When we get the details of total assets, we will understand where the amount of property is in unused condition and where any income generating project can be taken.
Apart from speeding up the collection of holding tax and trade license, discussions were also held on what other taxes, benefits, rates, tolls and fees the corporation could collect as per the official gazette notification. According to the government budget, the corporation will be able to collect tax benefits, rates, tolls and fees in 26 sectors. These sectors include tax on annual value of buildings and land, tax on transfer of immovable property, tax on application for construction and reconstruction of buildings, tax on import of goods for consumption or sale of city dwellers, tax on export of goods from city, introduction of national tax or tax on scholarship, tax on birth and adoption and banquet, tax on advertising, tax on animals, tax on movie drama and drama exhibitions and other entertainment and entertainment, tax on vehicles other than motor vehicles and boats, lamp fire rate, case settlement rate for public service performance, rate for water mill and water supply management, tax on government taxes levied by the government, Fees on taxes levied on any public service levied by the corporation, exhibitions on art exhibitions, fees on the market, fees for licenses, approvals and permits issued by the corporation, fees for special functions by the corporation, fees for slaughtering animals, any other fees approved under any provision of this act, the government charges any other tax is called law. The mayor said that according to the government gazette mentioned, tax, sub-tax, rate fee, among the 26 sectors to be levied, some of these sectors are taxable by the corporation but there are many other sectors which are outside the scope of tax.
He asked the officials of the corporation to consider the legal aspects of the measures to be taken in consultation with the port authorities to collect the fees from the container vans, lorries and container containers plying the roads to make the infrastructural development of the city sustainable.
CCC mayor said that if the income-generating project does not increase its own revenue, it will be difficult to conduct civic service activities by paying salaries and allowances to the officers and employees of the corporation.
