‘No knowledge of Council fund transfer to individual accounts’

SHILLONG: KHADC Executive Member in charge of Forest Grace Mary Kharpuri, who had earlier served as EM Taxation, on Sunday clarified that she has no information about the transfer of the Council’s fund to certain individuals despite holding charge of the Taxation department for a long period of time.
Reacting to media reports in this regard, Kharpuri said, “During my tenure as the EM of Taxation, I always told my officers to provide me with the detailed account of the revenue collected by the Council on a monthly basis.”
She also said as per the procedure, the officers would deposit the amount collected in the bank account of the Council after making the necessary calculation on the revenue collected in any particular month.
“This kind of discrepancy was never there in the past since the detailed account, which was given at the end of every fiscal year, would always show the exact amount on the revenue collected by the Council during the whole year,” the EM said.
“As per my understanding of the matter, the disbursement and deposit officer will be able to throw light on this issue.
“But I am sure that once the inquiry is complete everything will be clear,” she added.
Kharpuri, however, informed that the Council used to utilise the revenue collected from the professional tax for payment of salaries of the staff and also for other expenses.
The controversy came to light after a section of the media reported about alleged misappropriation of funds of over Rs 1 crore that was collected in the form of professional tax by the Council’s branch office at Nongpoh and Nongstoin.