Karnataka - Mangalore   

CPI(M) terms SAS anti-poor

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

RAISING THEIR VOICE: Members of the CPI(M) and Democratic Youth Federation of India staging protest against property tax rate under SAS in Mangalore on Monday.

MANGALORE: The district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged a protest against the implementation of self-assessment scheme (SAS) for property tax here on Monday.

The protestors took out a rally from Ballalbagh to the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) and shouted slogans against the SAS.

Sunil Kumar Bajal, secretary of the committee, said that SAS was unscientific and a burden on the middle and lower-class people. “People who were paying a tax of Rs.60 to 80 a year have to pay ten times more under the new method of paying property tax,” he said.

Criticising former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna for having implemented the SAS for the first time, Mr. Bajal charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government with not initiating steps to withdraw it. “When BJP was not in power, its leaders opposed the SAS. But now they are not taking any step to drop it,” he said.

“If the Mayor does not drop it immediately, the CPI(M), along with other left parties, will intensify the agitation,” he said. Muneer Katipalla, president of the district unit of Democratic Youth Federation of India, said: “The BJP is trying to instil fear in the minds of the protesters by using police force. But we will not retreat.”

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