Protest forces Kota sanitation tax rollback
ISSUE Civic body had passed proposal to impose ₹1,000 tax on every student
Following protests by coaching students in Kota over the proposal of imposing a sanitation tax by the civic authorities, city mayor on Thursday said the tax will not be imposed on students.
On November 20, the Kota Municipal Corporation’s revenue committee passed a proposal to impose a sanitation tax of ₹1,000 for every student in the coaching and other private educational institutes having strength of 250 or more students.
Objecting to the proposal, Leader of Opposition in the corporation Anil Suwalka and other opposition leaders staged a protest along with more than 300 students holing placards and also held a “symbolic begging” drive.
Former Congress minister Shanti Dhariwal too questioned the decision of city civic body to impose the tax on coaching students.
Kota mayor Mahesh Vijayvargiya said he was not in Kota when the revenue committee of the civic body discussed the proposal of imposing the tax on students of the city. “No such sanitation tax will be levied from the students as the coaching industry is the backbone of the city’s economy.”
“There is no question of rolling back the sanitation tax as the revenue committee of the KMC, had just tabled the issue as an agenda in its meeting and not approved it,” he said.
Member of Parliament from Kota, Om Birla also said the KMC will not levy any sanitation tax from students and alternate resources will be explored to ramp up revenue for sanitation.
The decision of KMC to impose sanitation tax was autocratic as it will impact on the fee structures of coaching students who are already paying GST and service tax while coaching institutes are paying urban development tax of the KMC, said Suwalka.
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