MCDs hiked 11 taxes in past 3 days, says AAP

The AAP said the civic bodies have increased professional tax, which means now all professionals will have to pay more depending on their profession.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday alleged that the three municipal corporations (MCDs) ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have increased around 11 different taxes over the past three days. The north corporation mayor, on behalf of all three corporations, said the civic bodies have not hiked any taxes in this year’s budget owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and even those proposed in the budget will not be approved.

Mayors of Delhi protesting outside CM Arvind Kejriwal's residence demanding immediate release of funds to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) at Flag Staff Road in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Senior AAP leader and municipal affairs in-charge Durgesh Pathak said the AAP will soon start a campaign to apprise people about these “inhumane acts” of the BJP and organise a mass movement against “arbitrary tax hikes”.

“The taxation system of an authority decides how that authority is. In Delhi, on the one hand, you have the Arvind Kejriwal government,which has not increased a single tax in the past six years but still managed to double the budget. On the other hand, you have the BJP-ruled MCDs, which are continuously increasing taxes. In the past three days, the north, east and south corporations have presented their budgets and all of them have increased taxes arbitrarily,” he said.

The AAP said the civic bodies have increased professional tax, which means now all professionals will have to pay more depending on their profession.

“In addition, now the people of Delhi are being asked to pay a betterment tax. They have also increased the property transfer tax. If any person in Delhi wants to open a factory, then the person will need to pay double the money for a factory licence. The BJP-ruled MCDs have hiked the rate of trade licences as well that of health licences. They have also hiked the commercial house tax, residential house tax and the charge for cleaning garbage. The MCDs have also hiked education tax and tax on vacant land,” Pathak said.

North Corporation mayor Jai Prakash, on behalf of all three corporations, said the civic bodies have not hiked any taxes in this year’s budget owing to the pandemic and the economic slowdown. “The new taxes that have been proposed by the east corporation will not be approved by the House, as we don’t want to burden on the people of Delhi during a pandemic,” he said.