Tax waiver for BPL families

Statesman News Service

MALDA, ( India) ,Nov. 30. — Despite protest from the Opposition against the decision to slash property tax, the Left Front backed Independent chairman of the English Bazaar Municipality, has adopted a resolution to waive property tax of 8,000 residents belonging to the below poverty line (BPL) category. The chairman of the civic body today, declared at a press conference property tax from a group of residents who used to pay Rs 40 per year based on the rate prescribed by the Central Valuation Board will not be collected. Mr Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, the chairman of the civic body, also claimed that nearly 8,000 residents would be benefited as a result of this. Mr Ghosh also announced that the board has decided to slash down the property tax by 10 per cent to 25 per cent on the present rate of property taxes in various categories, which was earlier finalised by the Central Valuation Board during the tenure of the Trinamul-BJP led board. It may be noted that the during the board of councillors meeting yesterday, the chairman had to conduct an election to pass the proposal of the new tax rate and the result of the vote was a tie. Both the Opposition and the present board got 12 votes each out of present 24 members on this issue. It may also be noted that a rebel Trinamul leader was absent in the meeting. Today, the chairman said that with the support of his casting vote in favour of the decision, the proposed tax rate has been finalised in accordance with the Municipality Act. On the other hand, the Opposition leaders claimed that the board has taken the decision ‘illegally’ and there was no such guideline in the Section 51 sub-section 3 of the Municipal Act 1993. On this issue, the meeting continued till late evening and the Opposition councillors demanded inquiry into the excessive payment made by the present board for purchasing fogging machines in the name of killing mosquitoes in the town. In reply to the agitation staged by 12 councillors belonging to the Congress, the Trinamul and the BJP, the CPI-M councillors claimed that the flow of tax collection increased after slashing down the rate of water tax imposed by the previous board. A CPI-M councillor, Mr DN Chaki said: “After deducting 50 per cent of water tax in various categories the collection of water tax stands at Rs 3.22 lakh in August 2005 and Rs 5.18 lakh in September. In October it was Rs 2.53 lakh due to the Durga Puja and till November the collection of water tax is Rs 3 lakh.” He also claimed that during the tenure of the previous board, the amount of water tax collection was Rs 2.21 lakh in May 2005, Rs 3.30 lakh was recorded in June and in July it was 3.47 lakh. The chairman and other board members belonging to the CPI-M also disclosed that they could not collect the due taxes from hotels in English Bazaar owing to a court case. “We have started dialogue with the hotel owners association to negotiate the matter. The earlier board had increased taxes and some of the hotels were forced to pay over 700 per cent increased rate of tax on the present rate,” Mr Nihar Ranjan Ghosh claimed. Mr Ghosh also said that the civic body has targeted Rs 1.51 crore from tax collection per year but they have been able to collect only 40 per cent of its proposed target.