VIJAYAWADA: Taxpayers Association has condemned the issuance of demand notices by Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) for payment of user charges. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, association general secretary MV Anjaneyulu said there was no mention of the details for collecting user charges in the demand notices served to the taxpayers. “There are no notice number and dates on the demand notices, which are being issued under the name “Integrated User Fee Demand Notice”. There are no details of what all fees are combined to form an integrated user fee.”
Elaborating further, he said that the State government has issued a memo to all urban local bodies on June 15, 2021 to charge user fee for garbage collection from the public. “The local authorities are putting pressure on the people to pay garbage tax accordingly. Some house owners have asked for a demand notice when the municipal staff asked them to pay the garbage tax. Now the demand notice given is for Garbage Collection but it should be clearly written as user fee for garbage collection. But there is no mention of it,” Anjaneyulu said.
TPA president V Sambi Reddy said that collection of user charges for garbage collection is unconstitutional.“Garbage disposal is the duty of the municipal corporation as per the Constitution. It is part of public health and therefore, the city administration should bear the cost of garbage collection. It’s the responsibility of the government to look after public health. People pay taxes to the government and the amount should be spent on public health,” he added.