The participants at a roundtable, held on the proposed property tax hike by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), described the unilateral decision as ‘undemocratic’ and ‘illegal’.
The roundtable was held on Wednesday on the issue of the draft notification to hike the property tax, based on the land values in different areas, instead of the earlier method of tax assessment based on rental value. CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy, TDP State general secretary Md. Nazeer, CPI(M) city secretary and 78th Ward corporator B. Ganga Rao, JSP leader and 22nd Ward corporator Peethala Murthy Yadav, Congress leader S. Sudhakar, Lok Satta leader V. Hari Ganesh and CPI-ML leader Ganesh Panda were among those who attended.
The participants said that a unilateral decision on the hike in property tax, without discussing the issue in the GVMC Council meeting, when there was an elected body, was ‘undemocratic’. This was not only an insult to theMayor and the corporators, but also to Ministers, MP s, MLAs and MLCs, who were ex-officio members in the GVMC.
The draft notification says the decision to hike the tax was taken when the GVMC had no elected body and was under the rule of a Special Officer on January 31, 2021. The speakers noted that there was an elected council on March, 18, 2021 and the decision had to be discussed in the council meeting.
They also noted that the GVMC Commissioner has no right to hike the tax on the directions of the State government. They demanded withdrawal of the hike and announced their decision to hold an all-party protest on the issue at the Gandhi statue, near GVMC, on June 11.
