Residents' organisations file PIL against capital value-linked house tax

Visakhapatnam: Visakha Apartment Residents' Welfare Association (VARWA) and Greater Visakha Residents' Colony Associations Federation (NIVAS) have filed separate Public Interest Litigations (PIL) in Andhra Pradesh High Court challenging shifting of system of taxation from rental value based house tax to capital value based property tax, levying library cess without providing library facility and misusing the cess collections, levying conservancy tax as well as garbage collection charges for the same service, imposing penalties illogically for old buildings also.

The GVMC Special Officer who passed the resolution on 31.01.2021 doesn't have authority to intervene into policy matters. Hence the resolution dated 31.01.2021 is null and void which implies that the entire process of new taxation is invalid, the petitions pointed out.

The authority of the Special Officer in GVMC in passing the resolution is also challenged. VARWA general secretary B.B. Ganesh and NIVAS general secretary Pitta Narayana Murthy led a protest by staghing a demonstration at the GVMC Gandhi statue here demanding the GVMC not to collect the property tax till the justice is delivered in the court cases and to scrap the garbage collection charges since the people in the city are rejecting in one voice.

They said there are cases filed by Vijayawada Taxpayers' Association and B. Ganga Rao, Corporator, 78th Ward, GVMC, which is pending in the court. VARWA and NIVAS submitted several memoranda to the GVMC on the issue. Hence, collection of taxes and charges should be kept under abeyance till the court judgement, they said.

Ganesh and Murthy said garbage collection charges should be abolished. During the protest,The protesters raised slogans opposing the new tax regime, demanding honour to the people's opinion and to the judiciary. A memorandum was also sent to the Commissioner and Mayor by mail.