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HOLDING TAX ASSESSMENT

Submission deadline extended to Aug 14 AL gives one-week ultimatum to cancel self-assessment system

STAR REPORT
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) yesterday extended the deadline for submitting self-assessment of holding tax from July 31 to August 14, while Awami League issued a one-week ultimatum to the corporation to withdraw the newly introduced tax
assessment system.
The DCC took the decision to shift the submission deadline considering the current flood situation in different areas of the city.
Announcing the decision to a group of reporters at his office yesterday, DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka said the reassessment of
holding tax is taking place after long 14 years as the city corporation has not been receiving the due holding taxes from new houses.
The DCC authorities introduced the new system from July 1 with a view to increase its revenue earning. According to the system, owner of a holding will assess municipal taxes himself and the city corporation will collect taxes based on his assessment.
Khoka said, "The reassessment of holding tax through self assessment system will help the house owners escape harassment and will reduce corruption. The assessment form is simply designed so that the owners can fill it up easily. Around 4,500 volunteers have also been deployed to reach the forms to every holder and collect the filled up forms from door to door."
The mayor said the DCC has not imposed any new tax and there is no ground to fear that the selfassessment system would increase holding taxes, as the reassessment is mainly aimed at bringing the newly-constructed houses under the holding tax net.
He said thousands of new houses were constructed in the last 14 years, but the DCC has no accurate statistics on the number of new holdings and assessment of their exact tax amount.
Besides, thousands of buildings were reconstructed and renovated in the period, from which too the DCC is not getting actual amount of tax due to lack of assessment, Khoka added.
The mayor admitted that the city corporation has for long been being deprived of a considerable amount of tax revenue due to corruption of a section of its officials.
On the campaign against the reassessment of holding tax through self-assessment system, Khoka said the reassessment has no connection with any government body. "In the last two and a half years, we have increased services for the city dwellers and want to further expand our services. That is why we need the reassessment," the mayor explained.
Khoka said the DCC earned around Tk 125 crore in last fiscal as holding tax and hoped it would be more than Tk 200 crore after the reassessment.
AL ULTIMATUM
The main opposition, Awami League (AL), yesterday gave a one-week ultimatum to the DCC to withdraw the self-assessment system for reassessing holding tax
and threatened with tough agitation programmes, including hartal, siege and road blockade if its demand was not met by the deadline.
Dhaka City Unit AL President Mohammad Hanif alleged the new system is a complicated one and nothing but a scheme to increase taxes, adding it will also cerate new avenues of corruption.
"It will badly affect thousands of tenants, as the house owners will be compelled to increase rents in proportion to the rise in holding tax," Hanif predicted.
At a news conference at the Bangabandhu Avenue office of AL, the former DCC mayor said AL would hold opinion exchange meetings with professional bodies and social organisations from today to July 27 to arrive at a consensus on the issue and consolidate people's voice against the new system.
The party will organise a citizen rally on July 28. "From that rally, we will announce fresh agitation programme if the authorities ignore our demand," Hanif added.
AL leaders told the newspersons that instead of increasing earning of the city corporation the system would create more scopes for corruption, as it is too complicated a way to fix taxes.
"Many of the house owners are unable to understand the complicated self-assessment form and are running to lawyers and city corporation officials just for filling up those," Hanif said, claiming, "Even I who was the mayor of the city for eight years have failed to comprehend the form".
Dhaka City AL General Secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury was present at the conference.