KOCHI: Hundreds of laboratories, scanning centres, X-ray centres, blood banks, clinics and other paramedical institutes in the city are functioning without registration causing huge revenue loss to the of City Corporation. The annual audit report of the Local Fund Audit department for the fiscal 2016-17 found that only 459 institutes are registered with the civic body, while several hundreds of such firms operate in the city. It has also found that many registered institutes, including a few leading clinics, hospitals and labs have not renewed their registration annually.
As per the Kerala Municipal Act 1994, no hospital or paramedical institution can start and operate in a municipal area without being registered with the civic body. If found violating the norms, the civic body can slap fine of Rs5,000. Registration and its annual renewal are a major revenue source for the civic body. The Corporation has suffered huge revenue loss due to functioning of unregistered clinics and labs, it has been observed in the Audit report. The report has also instructed to extract the amount from the officials who are responsible for the revenue loss.
It is the responsibility of health inspectors in each health circle to ensure that all such institutions operating in the area are registered with the local body. The audit report for the 2015-16 fiscal had mentioned serious lapse from the part of City Corporation in permitting paramedical institutions to function without registration. But the civic authorities failed to take any steps to penalise the unregistered firms.
