New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) The AAP on Sunday alleged that the BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi has sent notices to shopkeepers in the city’s industrial areas asking them to pay “unjustified” conversion charge, failing which their establishments will be sealed and penalties imposed.
This is an attempt by the BJP to “extort” money from businessmen, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Durgesh Pathak told a press conference.
“Thousands of such notices have been sent to businessmen across Delhi demanding payment of conversion charge which ranges from Rs 1-5 crore,” he said and showed a copy of a notice served by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on the owner of a furniture shop.
For the past one week, BJP leaders and “their officers (MCD officials)” are threatening businessmen with sealing of shops and penalties if they do not pay conversion charge, the MLA from Rajendra Nagar alleged and warned the BJP that “if you seal any of shop, you will have to face a lot of difficulties”.
There was no immediate reaction from the BJP or the MCD to the AAP leader’s claims and allegations.
Terming the notices allegedly sent to businessmen as “unjustified”, Pathak claimed the payment of outstanding conversion charge is based on a new provision that was brought by the civic body through the “backdoor” in 2018. In 2010, he said, the MCD had notified a new rule for payment of tax in the form of conversion charge by those carrying out commercial activities in the city’s industrial areas.
It had also provided them the option of one-time payment or installment according to prescribed rates, and at least, 80 per cent of businessmen opted for payment of conversion charge in installments in 10-15 years, Pathak claimed.
“They kept on paying the tax at the end of the year. But, in 2018, the BJP-ruled MCD brought a new rule from backdoor and increased the conversion charge,” he said.
After most of businessmen began paying the conversion charge in installments over 10 or 15 years, how can the MCD break this “agreement” with them in the meantime, “is it justified”, the AAP leader asked.
Referring to the MCD polls, dates of which are yet to be announced, he said, “When your (BJP) time has come to leave, you have started a move to extort shopkeepers in the name of sealing their shops. The Aam Aadmi Party will not tolerate this. We oppose it tooth and nail.” PTI PK ANB ANB
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Source: The Print
