Crossing Dehu Rd Cantonment will cost more

According to officials,the board has proposed to hike octroi by over 4-5 per cent. The transit fee will go up 5 times. For a loaded truck,transit fee has been proposed to be increased from Rs 20 to Rs 100. The last time the cantonment board increased transit fee was in 1995 and a revision was recently proposed,after the board heard objections from people over the rate revision.

Confirming this,office Superintendent N M Mahajani said the increase in octroi and transit fee will be notified in the government gazette before it is implemented. “The hike in tax rate has been conveyed to the Ministry of Defence for publication in the gazette,” he said.

The move is expected to increase revenue substantially. As of now,on an average,the cantonment board collects Rs 80,000 per day as transit fee and octroi collection ranges between Rs 50,000 and 1 lakh every day. Mahajani said collection will increase 4-5 times after rate revision.

The cantonment board had been earlier expecting some buoyancy in octroi collection after it discussed the possibility of getting the whole exercise privatised. Resistance from people to privatisation owing to fear of strong-arm measures to collect octroi,led to shelving of the idea. The board then decided to increase octroi.

Mahajani said that as compared to last year,revenue situation this year was better as Dehu Road Board had received over Rs 7 crore as service charges from defence institutions. “Last year,we received Rs 2.8 lakh as service charges. This year money received as service charges was nearly Rs 7.25 crore. This makes our revenue position buoyant and we would be in a position to spend on developmental works,” said Mahajani.

He said the money realised is being used for developmental works including roads. “We are calling bids again for construction of roads. Last year even as we were short of money,we had to implement recommendations of 6th Pay Commission to effect a hike in salaries. This year,we would have enough money for developmental works,” Mahajani said.