BeMC, Berhampur adjudged best ULBs
Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar/Berhampur: Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) and Buguda NAC have been adjudged as Best ULBs for Municipal Premiere League (MPL) 1.0 and 2.0 editions respectively. Housing and Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena announced it at an Awards functions at Lok Seva Bhavan here on Saturday.
The MPL is a unique competition to motivate tax officials in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to improve their performances and enable maximum collections through internal revenue sources.
BeMC was adjudged as the Best ULB for MPL 1.0 in the Corporation category, Paradeep in the Municipality category and Buguda in the NAC category.
Felicitating the winning ULBs and the individual best performers, Jena said it is satisfying to see the growth of revenue collections through the MPL in the last two years, especially considering the challenges faced during the Covid pandemic.
“When ULBs are able to generate funds from their own revenues, it ensures that they are getting financially stronger to cater to the demands of citizens in providing them with more facilities like parks, playgrounds, better roads etc,” he added.
Jena appreciated the ULBs for quick adoption of digital technologies in revenue collection.
The MPL 1.0 was initially launched in Odisha across 9 large cities in February 2020 for 214 tax functionaries. It was later scaled up as MPL 2.0 to all the 114 ULBs for 655+ tax functionaries.
The Minister launched MPL 3.0 on Saturday for the coming year during the event.
H & UD Secretary G Mathi Vathanan said MPL was started on a mission mode to make Odisha’s ULBs financially stronger and sustainable. “With the successes of two versions of MPL, we are happy to say that we are firmly on this path,” he said.
In the first year, the MPL was able to deliver 24 per cent increase in property tax collections for FY 19-20. The digital collections during MPL 1.0 rose from less than 10 per cent to 43 per cent. The success of MPL 1.0 encouraged the H&UD department to expand this format across all the 114 ULBs of the State as MPL 2.0.
It resulted in an increase in collections by 15 per cent for FY 20-21 and digital collections increased to 85 per cent despite a pandemic year. The MPL 2.0 also marked the launch of a new digital dashboard wherein daily collections were recorded on a standard platform across 114 ULBs.
“All 650+ tax collecting functionaries and 114 City Managers were given comprehensive training on soft skills and technicalities and provided support through creating centralised teams for real time issue resolution,” said Sangramjit Nayak, Director, Municipal Administration. In addition, 67 Mission Shakti Self-Help Groups (SHGs) were also involved in property tax collection for the first time in the State, he noted.
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