Chandigarh BJP on Friday condemned the proposed hike in the house tax in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The BJP alleged that Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh is a rich corporation having fixed deposits to the tunes of crores of rupees and other resources of revenue are enough to meet the expenditure.
“However, in the greed of more money, after levying the taxes on the residential and commercial properties, the Corporation under the orders of the Administration run under corrupt and confused Congress Government, is planning to enhance the house tax to a very unreasonable extent,” alleged the party leaders in a statement issued on Friday.The party stated that this exposes the residents of the City Beautiful to the financial crisis, because the common man has already been crushed by rise in the prices of every commodity, and misrule and corruption galore everywhere under the rule of Central Government.
The UT Administration had notified the imposition of house tax in the city in the month of July. The tax on residential property was imposed at the rate of Re 1 per square yard annually. The houses measuring less than 125 square yards, of EWS or lIG category and in villages falling within the limits of the Municipal Corporation were exempted from paying taxes.
Recently, a special committee of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh had proposed an increase of 20 per cent in the house tax. The party stated that present Mayor of Municipal Corporation Subhash Chawla while assuming office had promised and assured that no further taxation will be levied during his tenure. However, he failed to keep his promises.