Will abolish residential house tax if voted to power: Kejriwal

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

In a master stroke Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today announced that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will abolish residential house tax and waive off arrears on such tax in the national Capital if his party is voted to power in the municipal corporations.

Pointing out that the house tax had become “draconian and a source of big corruption” in the city, the AAP chief asserted that saving money from corruption will help in covering the shortfall due to removal of house tax.

All employees will receive their salaries by seventh of every month, assured the Chief Minister.

A tactful move for which Kejriwal said “calculations have been worked out” as in the case of “electricity and water subsidies”, while adding that his party will explore ways to generate revenues and turn cash-strapped municipal corporations “profitable” within a year.

The party would soon come up with a detailed manifesto for the municipal elections, said the AAP chief.

This came on a day when the opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress have each roped in their top guns to woo voters for the MCD polls.

Gauging what could be their impact, especially at a time when the BJP is upbeat post state election triumphs and the Congress hopes to reclaim its sheen in the capital, Kejriwal thus pitched for his party as one which “delivers” on its promises.

“We will do away with residential house tax if the Aam Aadmi Party wins the MCD polls....We will turn around the finances within a year of coming to power,” said the AAP chief while adding that the commercial and industrial house tax would continue.

In course, the Chief Minister reminded people of measures of power and water subsidies his government offered to residents as promised ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, saying his political opponents then had mocked at his party, but it is the same “governance model” with which his party will revive the MCDs.

“We announce after a lot of calculations. We have seen the accounts of the MCD and we think people are paying so much house tax. There are many projects undertaken by the MCDs multiple times on paper and things done which are of no utility to people. As per the CAG report, pensions were given by the MCDs to 2,000 non-existent people,” said Kejriwal highlighting the level of corruption in the civic bodies.