Agartala civic council draws flak for tax hike

AGARTALA, March 31:The sharp increase in municipal taxes on all heads in the budget for the coming financial year has created serious resentment. The Opposition parties have decided to launch an agitation against the tax hike. Agartala municipal council chairman Shankar Das placed a budget of Rs 21.49 crore for the council for the coming financial year. For the first time, the municipal budget showed a rise in taxes and service charges from 50 to 100 per cent in almost all sectors, including maintenance of pet animals, the charge for which has been doubled. Das justified the hike in taxes and service charges, citing resource constraints of the municipal council and financial mismanagement by the previous Congress-led council. He also laid stress on cost control and better collection of taxes and service charges. However, the council's decision to raise taxes and service charges has drawn flak from various quarters. PCC president Birajit Sinha has described it as an "additional burden on the poor." Sinha indicated that his party would mobilise public opinion against the decision to raise taxes. The lone Trinamul Congress councillor in the council, Protima Saha, criticised the budget proposals in her speech. She claimed that the people were being made to pay for the new council's inefficiency. At a time when thousands of applications for water supply connections were pending disposal, the council had raised the water tax, she said, asserting that it could mobilise additional resources by extending the tax net. Saha also alleged that the council had been turned into a "rehabilitation centre for Marxist cadre" as many retired employees and officers were working on deputation for years together. She referred to the "delegation of financial power rules" of the state government to prove that such deputed officers and employees were being illegally allowed to draw salaries from the council and demanded that the state government should pay for their salaries and allowances. In a separate development, the city's Taxpayers Association, an organisation fighting for civic rights in the municipal areas, has called an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss the sharp rise in municipal tax and service charges. An association spokesman said they might chalk out an agitation programme to press for cancellation of the tax hike.