The Hindu 10.11.2010
Demand to abolish property tax on Capital's villages
Special Correspondent
| Delegation led by Vijay Goel submits memorandum to MCD Commissioner |
“NO TAX PLEASE”: A delegation of villagers and residents of the Capital's unauthorised colonies led by BJP general secretary Vijay Goel at the MCD Commissioner's office in Delhi on Tuesday to submit a memorandum.
NEW DELHI: BJP general secretary Vijay Goel on Tuesday led a delegation of representatives of the Capital's 360 villages and met Municipal Commissioner K.S. Mehra to demand abolition of property tax in rural Delhi. The delegation also handed over a memorandum to Mr. Mehra seeking an amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act for making this change.
Mr. Goel demanded that MCD immediately stop sending notices in villages and unauthorised colonies for the recovery of property tax because this was leading to a large scale corruption. “Money is being recovered in an arbitrary way under threats of these notices whereas MCD is not getting a single rupee,'' he claimed.
The former Union Minister, who had earlier issued a statement making these very demands, said when agricultural income was exempted from income tax and when proper civic amenities and facilities are missing from the villages, then how can property tax be levied in the villages?
“The fact is that no tax was recovered from the original residents of the rural areas before 2004,'' he said. Similarly, Mr. Goel added, no house tax should be recovered from unauthorised colonies till they are regularised and basic facilities such as proper roads, drinking water, drainage, electricity, community hall and schools are provided to them.
“When MCD is not spending a single rupee on unauthorised colonies, then it has no right to recover tax from there,'' he said, adding that when MCD issues advertisement for recovery of property tax, people think the Corporation is putting a burden on them. “When officers and elected councillors are approached in this regard, they say they are helpless under the provisions of the Act. When no property tax is being recovered for the past so many years, then why now? So this tax should be withdrawn,'' he said. The BJP leader said it was also strange that for houses constructed between 2008-10 in the Capital's unauthorised colonies, the owners are being asked to pay the tax from 2004.
