Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced that his party would abolish residential house tax in the Capital and waive all previous arrears if voted to power in the upcoming municipal elections.
Speaking at a press conference at his residence, the Chief Minister said: “We have fulfilled our promise to slash power tariff by half and make water free for residents. For the municipal polls, we will do away with residential house tax. However, industrial and commercial house tax will be there.’’
Budget 2017 had also stayed away from imposing any new tax on citizens for the third year in a row.
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Plugging corruption
Mr. Kejriwal further said that money could be saved by plugging corruption.
“Currently, the public is harassed in the name of collection of house tax. We will end that harassment. We have seen councillors getting rich after winning elections because the tax goes to their pockets,” he said.
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Citing the example of the North corporation, Mr. Kejriwal said the body had a budget of ₹3,300 crore, of which ₹250-300 crore came from house tax. “This much can be easily saved,” he said.
The AAP convenor added that the party would soon come up with a detailed manifesto for the polls.
“Corruption is the biggest bane of the civic bodies. People who roam around on scooters buy five luxury cars, land and houses after coming to power. We want to stop this trend. We want people’s money to be used judiciously. The money saved is money in your pocket,’’ said the Chief Minister.
Elections to 272 wards in the three municipal corporations are due on April 23. The results will be out on April 26.