The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are “lying” to people that the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has reduced house tax and several licence fees, but in fact the BJP increased many licence fees by 17-25 times.
“The corporation hiked the factory licence fee by almost 20 times. In the pandemic, when everyone is rolling back such fees, they have the guts to enforce such an increase. Similarly, general trade licence fee was increased by 17 to 25 times,” AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said.
He said that on the one hand, people are stressed about the loss of business, while on the other, the BJP has “doubled” the property tax on commercial properties. “A year later, in August 2021, they got articles published saying all these fee hikes have been rolled back. They said they’ve rolled back all these licence fees and also house tax for plots up to 50 square yards,” the AAP leader said.
Mr. Bharadwaj said that throughout North Delhi, the BJP has put up boards and advertisements and Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta is congratulating himself on reducing the taxes that he had increased one year ago.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor termed Mr. Bharadwaj’s allegations “politically immature conduct” allegedly seeking to mislead people on the withdrawal of hiked trade licence fees apart from a waiver on property tax.
“NDMC’s general house and standing committee has already approved withdrawal of hiked charges and property tax waiver which are now awaiting notification by the administrative wing. Such notifications take a few weeks’ time and are likely to happen anytime next week,” Mr. Kapoor said.
The Delhi BJP spokesperson alleged that AAP leaders seemed to be interested only in politicking over issues being faced by citizens instead of finding solutions to them.