PONDA: With the new financial year 2015-16 barely four days away, the sopo tax imbroglio between Ponda market shed vendors and Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) is yet to be resolved.
Unhappy with the decision of the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) regarding the sopo rates, the vendors have now decided to take the matter back to the court to seek justice.
A few months back, the High Court had directed the Directorate of Municipal Administration to resolve the sopo tax issue and find an appropriate solution after Ponda Market Vendors Association filed a petition before the court seeking justice.
Speaking to media persons, vendors leader Kishore Mamlekar said they had filed a petition before the court claiming that PMC hiked the sopo rates from Rs 5 to 20 without following proper rules and regulations. “The rates were exorbitant for the vendors to pay to the sopo contractor appointed by the PMC,” he said.
The High Court, hearing the matter, directed the DMA to solve the issue, but Mamlekar told media persons that DMA decided on the same rates, which were earlier reduced by PMC, following former chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s intervention.
“We had objected to the earlier rates and this decision of DMA was not expected. So we will take the matter back to the High Court to seek justice against exorbitant sopo rates,” he added.
Mamlekar said though DMA announced its decision on sopo rates on March 24, the PMC chief officer without even receiving the order put up a notice in Ponda market on March 25, asking the vendors to pay arrears of sopo tax, which they had not paid for the last few months.
“PMC staff is pressurising that arrears of sopo rates of each vendor works out to Rs 25000 to 50,000 and above for last six to eight months,” he said.
