MCD move to hike property tax will put unbearable burden on the people: Delhi Congress

Delhi Congress chief Anil Kumar said that the Delhi Jal Board under the Delhi government has already hiked the sewer and water connection development charges and the hike in property tax will be beyond the paying capacity of the common people.

New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Kumar said that the BJP leaders  had given the false hope to Delhiites that with the merger of the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCDS), the central government will extend a Rs 13000 crore bailout package to Delhi, which Delhi Congress had been demanding for long, to address its financial woes, created due to the corruption and mismanagement of funds by the BJP during its 15-year rule of the corporations, and by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and its leaders, but on the contrary, the MCD has decided to hike the property tax, which will put additional burden on the people, which they are not in a position to afford.

Anil Kumar said that the Delhi Jal Board under the Delhi government has already hiked the sewer and water connection development charges and the hike in property tax will be beyond the paying capacity of the common people. He said that such a heavy burden should not be imposed on the people who are already weighed down by price rise, unemployment, rate hike of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, and the Covid-19 devastation. He said that both the BJP and the AAP have joined hands to impose heavy burden on the people. He said that the power distribution companies had arbitrarily hiked the Power Purchase Adjustment Cost (PPAC) rate recently, which will be reflected in the power bills of July, with a two to six per cent hike.

Anil Kumar said that the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations (EDMC) had imposed a one per cent Education Cess on the residents, which South Delhi residents had been paying already, while the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) hiked the taxes of properties connected with entertainment and recreation like cinema halls and other such places, from three to four per cent, and this tax burden will eventually fall on the people who visit such places. He said that similarly, the South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations, which were charging four per cent use factor charges on banquet halls, have now hiked it to six per cent, and all these taxes will make the lives of the people unbearable.

Anil Kumar said that the expectation that the unification of the MCDs will end corruption in the corporation has been belied, as the MCD is still running short of funds, and the MCD administrators are transferring the fund crunch burden on the people, which the BJP and AAP Governments were doing in the past in any case. He said that nothing has changed with the unification of the MCDs, as corruption is as high as before.