The Sopo tax collection from market vendors should have been a simple exercise for the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC). It has, instead, changed political and economic equations, caused fierce agitations and even divided the market traders.
The rivalry surrounding the Sopo tax came to the fore again during the PMC meeting on February 3, when Chairperson Radhika Naik, of the ruling BJP group, said the council wanted to discuss the Sopo auction for the year 2015-16.
The MGP-supported opposition group immediately opposed this on grounds that the PMC had no right to discuss the Sopo tax for the new financial year, when the old and controversial Sopo issue had not been resolved.
Overruling the opposition, PMC Chairperson Radhika Naik insisted that the old Sopo issue was not on agenda and the ruling group then passed resolution to auction Sopo tax collection for the new financial year.
Unhappy with the ruling group’s resolution, opposition councillor Shivanand Sawant and four other councillors then told media persons that they suspected a fraud in the Sopo tax collection.
“The open market vendors have been regularly paying Sopo tax to the tune of about Rs 38 lakh. The PMC has been favouring the Sopo contractor despite non-payment of three Sopo installments in a row,” said Sawant.
The next day, Naik refuted these allegations and presented figures to show that the PMC had in fact an excess of Rs 93,000.
“After reducing the Sopo rates from Rs 12 to Rs 6, the contract amount was also reduced from Rs 74 to Rs 36 lakh. Taking that into consideration, the PMC had received an excess amount of Rs 93,000 and hence, is liable to pay the contractor this excess amount.
A few months later, the situation changed as both alliance partners (MGP and BJP) tried to gain control of Ponda and the Sopo tax was one of the first issues to fight over.
While a group of five MGP-supported councilors, backed by Ponda MLA Lavu Mamledar, suspected a fraud in the Sopo tax, the ruling group of nine councilors, supported by the BJP, stood by the prevailing Sopo tax.
The Sopo tax has also caused some rift among the market vendors. While vendors inside the market shed have stopped paying the tax to the contractor since July 2014, vendors located outside the market shed and fish vendors have been paying it.
Complicating this strained relationship between the two groups of vendors is the fact that the vendors outside the market shed and fish vendors had supported the vendors inside the market shed during a market bandh. But that did not stop the vendors outside the market shed from paying the Sopo tax during 2014-15.
