Hyderabad Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HKCCI), an organisation of industrialists and traders, has asked the State government to withdraw all the cases booked against traders for violating COVID-19 regulations including the lockdown.
Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, Prashant S. Manakar and Sharanabasappa M. Pappa, president and secretary of the trade body respectively, said that the industrialists and traders were already in a bad shape financially owing to the frequent closures of their business establishments during the COVID-19 lockdown and the police cases on them amounted to rubbing salt into their wounds.
“Over 300 cases have been booked against traders for violating COVID-19 regulations in Kalaburagi city alone. Provisions of the Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act and different Sections of the Indian Penal Code are invoked for even minor violations such as not wearing masks, not maintaining social distancing, and openingshops for a brief period in an emergency. Police are preparing to file charge-sheets in the courts. The traders are worried about the cases as they could be imprisoned for up to three months and fined up to ₹2.5 lakh,” Mr. Pappa said appealing to the government to place the matter in the next Cabinet meeting and withdraw all the cases. He added that a memorandum had already been submitted to the government, and the office-bearers of the trade body had discussed the matter with the district in-charge Minister Murugesh Nirani.
Property tax
Terming the revision of property tax by the Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation unscientific and irrational at the time of pandemic-caused economic slowdown, Mr. Manakar demanded the complete rollback of the tax hike to its pre-pandemic position.
“Over the last three years, property tax has been raised phenomenally in Kalaburagi city. In some cases, the hiked tax is more than double compared to the previous year. The property tax for a commercial property in the vegetable market, for instance, is raised from ₹26,828 in the previous year to ₹56,408 now. The phenomenal rise was because the guidance value of the property in 2018-19 was made the basis for the hike in property tax this year. The previous year’s tax was based on the property’s guidance value in 2004-05. The hike would seriously affect the traders and industrialists who were already hit hard by the pandemic. We, therefore, appeal to the civic body to completely roll back the tax revision. The guidance value of 2004-05 should be made the basis for fixing the tax amount and there should be no hike in the tax rates for the current year,” Mr. Manakar said.
