Has your vehicle dealer paid octroi to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) before you purchased your car or bike? A Right to Information (RTI) application revealed that fake octroi receipts were used to clear vehicles at the octroi posts and even to register them at the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).
Has your vehicle dealer paid octroi to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) before you purchased your car or bike? A Right to Information (RTI) application revealed that fake octroi receipts were used to clear vehicles at the octroi posts and even to register them at the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).
The revelation, says RTI activist Pramod Lokare who pursued the issue, could just be a tip of the iceberg. Over a period of two months, from November to December last year, alone 10 fake octroi receipts were found under Andheri RTO, wherein 217 two-wheelers were brought inside Mumbai limits only to be sold to unsuspecting customers.
In Mumbai, there are three RTOs and five road octroi posts at Dahisar, Mulund West, Mulund East, Airoli and Vashi. Apart from these locations, there are octroi squads and posts at railway stations too.
"There may be a bigger scam and racket behind this entire thing involving some officials. I have been pursuing this matter, asking RTOs as well as BMC on how many fake receipts they get during vehicle registration process. But BMC has been non-cooperative on the subject and provided me with false information. It only shows that the department officials are least bothered about corruption and loss of revenue, that could well be in crores," said Lokare.
As per the RTI reply, Andheri RTO suspected 43 octroi receipts to be fake and had sent it for verification; BMC confirmed 10 of them to be fake, wherein octroi payment was evaded by a bike dealer.
"I have already written to the BMC commissioner to look into the issue, after all it is about revenue loss to the public exchequer. Trucks loaded with vehicles cannot escape one's notice. But it is the civic body that has to act and come out with a solution," said Mahesh Zagade, Transport Commissioner, Maharashtra.
Milin Sawant, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Assessment and Collection Department, BMC said, "Whenever we find cases of octroi evasion and fake octroi receipts, First Information Report is filed under the relevant sections."
However, he refused to respond to the question on what measures BMC has been taking to plug the pilferage of revenue. When asked about the measures, Sawant replied: "I cannot reply to this general question on what measures we undertake."
The fact is that BMC has failed to keep octroi mafia under check. In 2007, the octroi mafia had even tried to exert pressure to get former Joint Municipal Commissioner V Radha transferred as she had taken them head-on to curb pilferage of octroi revenue. She had even received death threats for being a no non-sense person on the subject. In the same year, BJP corporator Manoj Kotak was attacked by the octroi mafia for attempting to expose "octroi scam".
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