Mayor directs admn to provide 50% rebate in property tax, water tariff
| Date :13-Aug-2020 |
Mayor Sandip Joshi presiding over the meeting of public
representatives on contentious issue of rebate in property tax and water bills.
Staff Reporter :
A meeting was convened by Mayor Sandip Joshi where a resolution was adopted demanding a waiver in cess
Not with standing precarious financial position of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Mayor Sandip Joshi, on Wednesday, directed administration to provide 50 per cent rebate in property tax and water tariff. Taking cue from the demand raised by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in city, Mayor today convened a meeting where a resolution was adopted demanding a waiver in cess that NMC collects every year.
The public representatives cited COVID-19 pandemic which they claimed has made lives miserable for citizens. Due to pandemic, citizens are reeling under impact of economic loss either due to pay cuts or due to loosing their jobs due to which they are already stressed. So looking into financial difficulties of Nagpurians, BJP MLA from East Nagpur Krishna Khopde raised the demand for waiver of 50 per cent in property tax.
As to water tariff, ruling BJP in NMC has already raised the issued even as civic administration cited procedures to downplay the matter. After the meeting, Mayor said as per Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, Municipal Commissioner is empowered to waive off cess and latter should sympathise with Nagpurians and provide rebate in property tax and roll back proposed hike in water usage charges. The meeting was held at Standing Committee Hall at NMC Central Office, Civil Lines, on Wednesday. MLAs Krishna Khopde and Mohan Mate, MLCs Girish Vyas, Pravin Datke and Nago Ganar; Sandeep Jadhav, Ruling Party Leader, NMC, Tanaji Wanve, Leader of Opposition, Mahendra Dhanvijay, Chairperson, Tax Committee, Dayashankar Tiwari and Sunil Agrawal, both senior corporators; Ram Joshi, Additional Commissioner, Milind Meshram, Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), Manoj Ganvir, Executive Engineer, were present during the discussion. Khopde pointed out citizens’ condition, especially the financial difficulties they are facing in view of effects of the pandemic.
Agreed that many of them have defaulted in payment of tax, yet the BJP MLA insisted on 50 per cent rebate for all property owners. The MLA’s contention was quite strange, he said apart from providing relief to citizens the NMC would also get desired revenue since people would not mind paying 50 per cent dues. He also batted for providing rebate to people clearing dues in one go. Datke faulted civic administration for not able to distribute demand note each month and still expect citizens to pay their taxes in time which he said is wrong practice.
As to hike in water usage charges, the BJP leader said same is mentioned in contract entered into with Orange City Works (OCW) and said the company has not distributed monthly bill as of date. He also threatened to launch an agitation if OCW is not able to provide monthly bills to citizens. One of the reason for rising default of water bill is failure of company to distribute bills per month, claimed another BJP MLA Mate. The taxes should not be felt as burden so much that citizens tend to end up defaulting on payment in public interest the demand for 50 per cent rebate is needed to be considered by civic administration. Vyas too toed the same line about streamlining the distribution of bills in time so that citizens can line up their expenditure each month.
NMC house is empowered to decide on waiving off taxes. Jadhav suggested one time settlement scheme to enable citizens who have huge arrears to settle their dues. Congress Party leader Wanve said the last three months have been most stressful for Nagpurians and in such time hiking taxes is not conducive. A policy decision be taken and relief be given to citizens as gesture of good will. Wrapping up the discussion, Mayor said administration should provide 50 per cent rebate in water bill for April to June and July to September, for the first six months period of the financial year. Similar principle be adopted for property tax also and administration should table the proposed before next meeting of general body. Mayor also frowned about repeated absence of Municipal Commissioner from meeting convened by public representatives though latter has kept the issues of property tax and water distribution with himself.
Arya slams BJP, accuses ruling party of putting burden on Nagpurians Vedprakash Arya, ex-corporator, criticised BJP for shedding crocodile tears on issue of 5 per cent hike in water charges, saying the ruling party is responsible for putting burden on Nagpurians in first place. Had BJP not insisted on handing over water distribution to a private company, NMC would have not gone for yearly hike. Since 2012 when ruling BJP forced NMC hand to sign agreement with Veolia Private Limited and Vishwaraj Private Limited for distributing water supply in city, the clause of yearly hike was built-in. So now BJP’s demand is just an attempt to escape reality as they themselves foisted the default hike on Nagpurians. Using their majority in NMC House, a resolution for yearly 5 per cent hike in water charges was passed and sent to State Government for approval.
Also, Standing Committee was given powers to hike water charges to 10 per cent, if needed. Arya said, that time ruling BJP had disregarded the objections of corporators that yearly increase would burden Nagpurians. BJP leaders justified the yearly hike saying same is necessary to ensure quality and uninterrupted supply of drinking water to city.
Due to privitisation of water distribution in city, NMC is incurring yearly burden in range of Rs. 80 to 100 crores and he questioned silence of BJP on the said issue. When the issue about handing over water supply to OCW was brought before house, BJP portrayed it as beneficial to NMC and now they themselves are seeking to stall the hike which is quite strange. BJP instead of pressing for rebate to citizens could bring a resolution for cancellation of agreement inked with private companies for water distribution on ground of non performance of contractual obligation and spare the yearly hike, Arya said.