Team Herald
SANGUEM: The newly elected Sanguem Municipal Council at its very first meeting passed a unanimous resolution to reduce the house tax and rent for municipal owned shop owners by 50 per cent.
During a meeting held on Monday, councillors Meshu D’Costa and Sangameshwar Naik proposed to reduce the house tax and rent for shop owners by 50 per cent.
“The proposal was accepted unanimously by all the councillors and a resolution was passed thereafter. The resolution will now be send to the Director of Municipal Administration for consideration”, informed councillors Sangameshwar and Meshu at a press conference held after the meeting.
D’Costa informed that some years back the council had raised the house tax by 10 times of the existing rates and this has put the people from Sanguem into great hardship in the payment of house tax.
“A person paying tax of about Rs 700 to Rs. 1000 was suddenly asked to pay increased rate of house tax of about Rs 7000 to Rs 10000 which was a huge burden on Sanguem locals”, he stated.
The Sanguem Municipal Council is a ‘C’ class municipality but the rates proposed for payment of house tax were that of ‘A’ category council, claimed D’Costa, however now, if the DMA accepts the resolution, the people in Sanguem will get some relief in the payment of house tax, he said.
“It becomes very difficulty for people living in small houses and who have no earning member in the family besides in some cases there are only widows living in the house”, informed Sangameshwar.
Sangameshwar said that the newly formed council also passed a resolution to drop the rent for municipal shop owners by 50 per cent.
“Several labourers and migrant workers have shifted to other States after the closure of mining and factories like Aparant Iron and Steel Factory at Kalay, Sanguem, which severely affected the business activities in the taluka”, he stated.
