Senior CPI( M) leader Mohamamd Yousuf Tarigami termed the levying of property tax as arbitrary and undemocratic.
The process of collecting tax and deciding the values of the tax is the sole prerogative of the elected institutions — the legislature to frame laws and the municipal councils/corporations to decide the forms and different values according to their objective realities.
Levying property tax in absence of an elected government is quite unconstitutional. Even the elected municipal bodies were not consulted.
The most objectionable part of the notification is the decision of deciding the values from the centre. These are the towns and cities to decide the values and not the centre, as mandated by the 74th Constitutional Amendment. The notification is ultra vires to the constitutional mandate.
The locking period of three years is also arbitrary. The cities must be given the prerogative to decide when they want to change their values and there should not be any particular locking period.
CPI(M) demands the immediate withdrawal of the notification.
