Berhmapur: The move of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) to hike holding tax and users’ fee has triggered resistance from local residents. Workers of various political parties like the BJP, the Congress and various labour unions have staged protests against it.
Citing the move as anti-people, the Congress leader and lawyer Pitabas Panda have moved High Court against it, by filing a writ petition. The petitioner has made the BeMC commissioner, the Collector and the state government as a party.
In the petition, it was stated that the Odisha Municipal Corporation Act has been sidelined while notification to this effect has been issued without holding a public hearing. Collection of excessive holding tax is anti-people.
The petitioner has appealed to the HC to seek replies from the state government as to why this decision was taken in a hurry. All the relevant documents related to hike of holding tax and users’ fees should be sought from the state government, the petitioner said.
The BeMC is already collecting users’ fees from residents for lifting of garbage. Collection of users’ fees is also illegal, he observed.
The petitioner also pointed out that Berhampur Municipal Corporation’s move has issued a notification on users’ fee January 7, 2021 while the term of the municipal council has expired two years ago.
The tenure of elected representatives of BeMC ended September 2018 while no elections have been held for various posts including the Mayor since then. The Collector has been assigned the additional responsibility of the civic body’s administrator.
“In this situation, hiking of holding tax and users’ fee is illegal. And the management of the BeMC is vested with the state government. In this situation, hiking holding tax is a burden on people. It should be scrapped immediately,” he added.
Locals said the decision to enhance taxes was taken in haste without taking into consideration the problems faced by people due to the pandemic.
Several outfits and political parties termed the move as arbitrary and urged the State government to not collect the enhanced taxes till livelihood of people, hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, is normalised.
PNN