Savoikar urged to rid Ponda of sopo tax

PONDA: Ponda vendors met South Goa MP Narendra Savoiker on Thursday and demanded the abolishment of the controversial sopo tax imposed by Ponda Municipal Council (PMC). It may be recalled that the vendors had given an eight-day deadline to the PMC to rollback the increased sopo tax, failing which they had threatened to observe a market bandh. The vendors led by former chairperson Kishore Mamlekar met Savoikar and apprised him of their difficulties in paying the exorbitant tax to the sopo contractor. The vendors demanded that the sopo collection tender should be terminated and sopo tax should be collected by PMC.