KOCHI: Aiming to bring in clarity on the assets and to boost its revenue, Kochi corporation is updating its assets registry with all documents on the missing assets of the local body. The corporation has entrusted the Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS) with the task of evaluating the assets and updating the registry.
The move comes even as the local body is preparing to issue municipal bonds and after complaints were raised from different corners about revenue generation and leakages.
“The lack of a proper asset registry has been affecting the corporation’s financial dealings. The state and the central governments issue grants after evaluating the assets of the local body. Since our register is not updated, the amount we receive is also significantly less than what we require. It is in this scenario that we decided to entrust an agency to update the registry,” Kochi Mayor V K Minimol said.
M G Aristottil, a member of the finance standing committee of the corporation, also said that many assets are missing from the documents and records of the local body.
“We need to update the asset register to receive the grants and allowance from the government. But we have been producing an outdated register,” he said.
With the corporation planning to issue municipal bonds, updating financial accounts remains a major challenge. The local body is required to prepare accounts and a register to improve the credit rating too.
“We are planning to invite a quotation from agencies to prepare a detailed project report (DPR). The asset register and accounts should be prepared and clarified by an expert or an agency recognised by SEBI,” Aristotil added.
In a significant step to increase income and prevent leakage in tax collection, Kochi corporation, in association with the ULCCS, had also initiated the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping of buildings, aiming to bring all buildings under the tax structure and identify discrepancies.
Recently, the corporation had also implemented a digital twin project intended to increase the corporation’s own revenue.
