The political blame game between the Congress and the BJP continued on Wednesday over the imposition of house tax in Chandigarh.
A day after releasing a white paper on the issue, a delegation of Chandigarh BJP led by its president Sanjay Tandon met UT Administrator Kaptan Singh Solanki, who is also Punjab and Haryana Governor, demanding to re-consider the decision of imposition of the house tax.
The BJP delegation told the Administrator that there were shortcomings while imposing the house tax which needs to be rectified after the discussion.
A spokesperson of the ruling party said that the UT Administration has imposed the tax on the lease hold properties also while the ownership of the properties was lying with the Administration. likewise tax is imposed on the land as well as the houses.
The BJP delegation said that the tax should be rationalised and balanced to avoid more financial burden on the people. They also demanded to exempt defence personnel from paying the tax on the pattern of the neighbouring states, said the spokesperson.
On the issue, Solanki assured the delegation that the issues would be discussed with the UT officers and appropriate decision will be taken keeping the in the mind the welfare of the people.
After the imposition of house tax in Chandigarh, the Congress and BJP are blaming each other for the same. While the BJP released a white paper on the issue, the Congress has started holding agitations against the decision.
Releasing the white paper on house tax, the BJP leaders had on Tuesday alleged that it was in 2006 when the Congress was ruling at the Centre and the mayor was also of this party. The Municipal Corporation and UT Administration entered into an MoU as per which house tax and commercial property tax had to be imposed.
last week, the UT Administration had announced that the house tax will be charged at a rate of Rs 2 per square yard on entire plot area and Re 1 per square feet per annum on total covered area in sectors including 1 to 19, 26, 27 and 28 which are described as Zone I. For houses located in sectors 20 to 25, 29 to 38 (west), the tax will be 80 per cent of the rates of zone I. For rest of sectors and areas, the tax will be 60 per cent of rate prevailing in zone I.