Municipal commissioner
RP Singh said it was necessary to increase house tax to provide basic
facilities to the people. It is a regular process in all municipal
corporation and taxes can be updated after every two years. After
Kanpur, Agra, Ghazipur, the taxes has been increased in Varanasi.

Singh said that for 90 per cent of the houses will pay 5 to 10 per cent
enhanced house tax, while close to 10 per cent will have to pay 20 to
25 per cent more. In order to encourage house tax collection, the VMC
is the first municipal corporation to exempt the tax payers from paying
interest on pending taxes from January to April 15. Such a step has
relieved a lot of tax payers who had huge amount of debt. He informed
that as many as 1.77 lakh houses have been identified under VMC, out of
which 1.45 lakh were accounted for paying taxes in 2012-2013. An amount
of Rs 19.25 crore has been collected as house tax in the last financial
year. The proposed target for house tax collection in the current
financial year is Rs 23 crore.

It must be mentioned here that
before tabling its budget, the VMC had proposed a hike in house taxes.
Resentment was brewing and corporators were also not in a mood to
support the move of corporation. During the budget session, the VMC
house unanimously decided that no such hike would be made.

Members of Varanasi Nagar Udyog Vyapar Mandar (VNUVM) held a meeting at Sigra on Friday and condemned the decision to hike house tax.