The Madras High Court on Monday questioned the maintainability of a writ petition filed by Federation of Madras Merchants and Manufacturers Association seeking waiver of property tax, professional tax, metro water and sewerage charges and trade licence fees for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22.
When Justice Anita Sumanth wanted to know whether the writ petition was maintainable at all, Government counsel N.R.R. Arun Natarajan replied in the negative. Hence, the judge directed him to ensure that the government filed a counter affidavit to the petition by July 22 on the question of maintainability too.
The judge refused to grant any kind of interim relief to the petitioner federation and asked it to pursue a representation supposedly made to the government and Greater Chennai Corporation. The federation had sought for an interim injunction restraining the government and the corporation from collecting the taxes, licence fee and other charges until the disposal of the writ petition.
In an affidavit filed on behalf of the federation, its honorary general secretary Satish H. Chavan said the case had been filed on behalf of a 26-year-old apex body of over 42 traders associations in Chennai city. He claimed that around 15,000 traders in the city were part of the federation and that a majority of them were from Park Town area.
The federation stated that the traders in the city had been hit hard due to the lockdown imposed in the State, to fight COVID-19, since March 2020. The lockdown had even resulted in many closing down their business since they were unable to maintain the infrastructure due to lack of business. It claimed that the government had completely ignored the plight of the traders.
Despite loss of business, the traders had to pay taxes, salaries, power bills, loans and so on. Though the traders contributed substantial amount of money to the Central and State treasuries, the governments had not announced any kind of relief for them, the federation said.
It insisted that the traders must be exempted from paying taxes, licence fees and other charges for two consecutive financial years and must also be included as beneficiaries under the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.