A day after the officials from the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) announced that they received 9,297 responses from people on the draft notification issued over property tax hike proposal, members of the Visakhapatnam Apartment Resident Welfare Association (VARWA) and the Federation of Visakha Residential Colony Associations (Nivas) demanded that the GVMC cancel the draft notification immediately. Welcoming the huge response from the public, they alleged that the GVMC has tried to discourage people from responding to the proposal.
“The corporation did not arrange any desk or at least a counter to receive responses at sachivalayams and zonal offices in the city. They also did not accept ‘tapalas’ and moreover no email ID was provided to receive responses. Apart from all these, the corporation released the draft notification right in the midst of the COVID-19 second wave and asked people to submit responses within a month. Under these difficult circumstances, people submitted their responses in a huge number and this should be appreciated. People understood that levying property tax on the basis of capital value will be a burden,” said VARWA General Secretary B.B. Ganesh.
The members also demanded that the corporation organise a debate in the council and reject the hike and amendments to the property tax system.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) leader and corporator of Ward No. 78, B. Ganga Rao, also welcomed huge response on the draft notification. He said that apart from these responses, over 15,000 people, resident/colony welfare associations and members from the chamber of commerce have sent their responses online. He said the GVMC officials should consider these responses also.
Mr. Ganga Rao alleged that the officials want to put the property tax issue before the GVMC council in the next meet and get it approved. The corporators from the YSRCP should oppose the proposal which could be a burden on people, he said.
