Cong, BJP question Kejriwal’s move on abolishing house tax

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over its announcement of scrapping the residential house tax prompted Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to accuse them of feigning ignorance about the “precedents” on amendments to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, 1957, in a bid to allow “inspector-raj” through recovery of house tax in the capital.

Reacting to the AAP’s sop for the MCD polls, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken termed Kejriwal’s offer “hilarious” while pointing out that 70 per cent of Delhi population is not covered under house tax.

On his part, BJP president Manoj Tiwari maintained that any revision towards withdrawing the mandatory provision in the DMC Act will warrant an approval of the Parliament.

However, coming down heavily on the opposition parties, Sisodia citing precedents claimed the DMC Act, 1957, has been amended often with such amendments until 1993 made in the Parliament, while after 1993 — both during the Congress and the BJP regimes — many amendments brought in without the sanction of the Parliament.

“In fact house tax was 10 per cent before it was amended to 6 per cent in 2003. Again in 2011 a large number of amendments were made across sections. None of these were done in the Parliament,” Sisodia said.

Sisodia retorted alleging they had “vested interests” in house tax and that their reactions are exactly similar as that seen when the AAP had promised to halve electricity rates during the assembly elections and asked people of Delhi not to fall into their “trap”.

“There is a racket involved in house tax and these political leaders are allowing exhortation of money under its garb. They are supporting inspector raj. The AAP can and will abolish house tax and will also ensure that the MCD turns profitable,” said Sisodia.