Bhubaneswar, Dec. 18: Demonetisation may have hit the common man hard, but for government agencies such as the municipal corporation and those supplying water and electricity it has come as a boon.
The revenue collection of these agencies has shot up in the past month with the government having allowed people to pay their bills in scrapped currency notes.
With the deadline for payment of bills in scrapped notes coming to an end on December 15, these organisations are busy counting old notes and computing the final collection figures. The state government has asked the utilities to furnish the final report.
The benefit came in hard cash for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the form of holding tax and user fees.
For the Central Electricity Supply Utilities (Cesu) it came in the form of electricity bills and arrears and for the Public Health Engineering Organisation (Pheo), in the form of water tax.
The civic body remained the big gainer with the collection of various taxes going up from Rs 3.65 crore in November last year to Rs 5.22 crore this year. It had collected only Rs 49 lakh in November last year as holding tax which has now gone up to a whopping Rs 2.16 crore following demonetisation.
"The collection of market rent also increased from Rs 2.59 lakh in November last year to Rs 7.92 lakh this year. We have also collected Rs 6.61 lakh as user fees in November this year and Rs 5.11 lakh in the first 15 days of December," said the civic body's finance officer Labanya Sabar.
Although post offices, which are supposed to collect water taxes, didn't help Pheo in the collection process, the organisation has successfully collected a whopping Rs 2.28 crore as tax and arrears from citizens and organisations between November 9 and December 15. Sources said the average collection of a month was between Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 crore.
"The demonetisation and the decision of the government to accept taxes in the scrapped currency notes has helped us. The collection in the past month is high as compared to previous months. We received the payments mostly in cash during the period," said Pheo assistant engineer Ashok Dash.
Demonetisation also helped electricity supplier Cesu. Of the three Cesu divisions in the city, the one covering Nayapalli and adjoining areas collected Rs 29.20 crore in the past month as current and arrear bills. While the second division collected Rs 50 lakh in past one month, the third mopped up Rs 16.27 crore in the shape of bills. Of this, Rs 7.49 crore was deposited in old notes.
"Collection of current bills and arrears was really good in the past month. Collection has risen sharply since November 9 after the government asked us to accept payments in scrapped currency notes as well," said Cesu senior general manager S.K. Swain.
