The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday said that even after 15 years of “corruption” in the city, the Bharatiya Janata Party is going to increase property taxes collected by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in order to “loot” more money.
Responding to the claims, Delhi BJP Spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said AAP leaders Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were playing a “dirty game of maligning MCD over property tax”.
“This tax hike is nothing but a new scheme for the BJP to loot money from honest citizens. All the taxes earned by the MCD in the last 15 years have been pocketed by BJP leaders,” AAP leader Atishi said during a press conference.
She added that AAP strongly opposes any attempt to increase property tax in Delhi.
AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the new L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena has been tasked with collecting higher taxes from Delhiites and in a matter of few days, Delhiites will be burdened by this property tax hike.
“When the MCD was unified, it was said that now onwards the funds will be taken from the Central government, but this money is being sought from the people of Delhi in the form of new taxes,” Mr. Bharadwaj added.
A new property tax structure was finalised in a meeting of the MCD officials held on July 4, he claimed.
“The L-G is going to give another shock to the people of Delhi by imposing an education cess of 1%. This tax will be added above the property tax,” Mr. Bharadwaj added.
‘To bring uniformity’
Speaking on the issue over the imposition of 1% education cess, Mr. Kapoor said it was already being charged by the erstwhile South MCD and now it will be applicable in uniformity to all taxpayers.
“The tax increase on an average middle-class taxpayer with a 50 sq. m to 200 sq. m [of residential area] will hardly be Rs. 50 to 200 per annum, that too for the cause of improving the standard of the municipal school,” he said.
“The MCD has just tried to bring city wide uniformity in taxation factor rates and from the next year, this problem too will end,” Mr. Kapoor added.
