New taxes proposed by EDMC anti-people: AAP

New Delhi: The AAP today dubbed the two new taxes proposed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in its budget as “anti-people”, while Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal opposed the move insisting that instances of corruption in the civic body should reduce.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey said the ruling BJP should learn from the “zero” tax budget being tabled by Delhi’s Finance Minister Manish Sisodia.

He said that “mismanagement” in the collection of existing taxes and the introduction of new taxes make it evident that the BJP has failed to work on the financial corruption and mismanagement in the corporations.

In its budget, the EDMC proposed an education cess (five per cent of property tax), betterment tax (15 per cent of property tax), and professional tax on individuals who have an annual income of Rs five lakh and above.

“There is no need to increase house tax in MCD. What is reqd is to reduce corruption. If u remove corruption, u will save so much money that u will be able to actually reduce house tax,” Kejriwal tweeted.

Earlier in the year, the AAP in its election manifesto, proposed a house tax waiver. But the party suffered a crushing defeat.

“After the proposed hikes in the budget of BJP-led North MCD, now the proposed budget of the BJP-led East MCD is also a huge anti-people move. The proposed budget of the two civic bodies makes it clear that the BJP is out to inflict financial wounds on the common residents of Delhi,” the AAP said in a statement.

PTI