Taking a tough stance against employees found guilty or suspected of allying with tax evaders, the octroi department issued showcause notices to ten regular employees, while ten contract employees working on BOT (Build Operate Transfer) basis have been issued termination notices.   

The move comes as part of the department’s drive against octroi evasion. About two weeks back, the department had banned use of cell phones during office hours for its 565 employees.

The move proved to be a wise one — the daily octroi collections went up by an average Rs 30 lakh following the ban! Ten suspected, Ten guilty

Octroi collection remains the main source of income for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the civic body has lately been focussing upon increasing its revenue collection.

The termination and showcause notices have been issued after the department busted a nexus between its own employees and the tax payers.

The showcause notice has been issued to the ten employees, asking them why anti-disciplinary action should not be taken against them.

Glaring discrepancies in octroi entries
PMC octroi’s department head, Hemant Nikam told Pune Mirror, “The department has issued notices against ten PMC employees for breaching department discipline, while we have recommended ten BOT employees to be permanently removed from PMC’s services.”

When asked about the charges against these employees, Nikam said, “When we checked the octroi records, we found glaring discrepancies in the entries made at various octroi posts.

Say for an example, instead of ten tonnes of goods, only 8 tonnes would have been entered. Since the discrepancies could only be the work of insiders, we realised that our employees were actually allying with the evading taxpayers.”


Phone ban main catalyst for crackdown
It may be highlighted here that the mobile phone ban during work hours was the main catalyst to the crackdown on octroi employee practices, since the sudden increase in octroi collections after the ban made a nexus between some employees and tax evaders starkly evident.

Prior to the ban, PMC’s daily octroi collection ranged between Rs 1.65 and Rs 1.70 crore. After the ban, the daily collections have crossed the Rs 2 crore figure.

Expect more culprits in the coming days: dept head
“The nexus is a serious breach of discipline. One can expect more such action in the coming days, as octroi documents and records are being checked,” Nikam added.

Of PMC’s 565 octroi employees, over 200 are working on contract basis. They are working under contractors who developed and computerised octroi posts on BOT basis.