Hoardings put up beside a road in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Jan. 14: The municipal corporation has asked all advertising agencies to clear all dues by the end of January.

In November last year, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation had issued notices to 128 such advertisement agencies and firms for clearing dues for the period of three years starting on March 31, 2011. However, in the past one month, the civic body could recover only Rs 50 lakh whereas the due is Rs 5 crore.

“We have intensified the process of recovering the money from the agencies. We have given one month to those agencies, who are yet to clear the dues,” said civic commissioner Gyana Das.

An official said the defaulters had been asked to repay the money in installments and a month’s time had been provided to them for the purpose. The corporation decided to collect arrears from the defaulters after the hoarding rights agreement with the Dream Team Shahara (DTS) had expired in September last year.

According to the agreement signed in 2011, the DTS was supposed to pay the civic body Rs 1.72 crore towards the hoarding rights while the corporation had received Rs 1.28 crore in three installments. The civic body had moved court after DTS officials had failed to pay the remaining amount. A lot of advertisement agencies had then illegally put up hoardings taking advantage of the laxity on the part of the civic body to collect annual licence fee towards installation of the hoardings.

To further streamline its revenue collection, the corporation will shortly introduce a code system to keep a check on sprouting of illegal hoardings and billboards across the city.

At present, the revenue collected by the corporation from hoardings is around Rs 1.72 crore. The civic body would generate nearly 20 to 30 per cent more revenue from hoardings and billboards, once the coding system comes into effect, sources said. The system would be introduced by March end.

According to the proposed coding system, the civic body will allot a special number to the agencies, which they have to display in their hoardings. The move is likely to keep tabs on installation of illegal hoardings and billboards in the corporation limits.