Akola Municipal Corporation hikes octroi on most items

AKOLA: Akola Municipal Corporation (AMC) in its special general body meeting held on Wednesday passed a resolution, hiking the octroi by 0.25% on most of the items. The meeting was chaired by mayor Suresh Patil.
Transit fee has been hiked by Rs 30 i.e. from Rs 50 to Rs 80.
Octroi on gold has been reduced by 10% i.e. from 0.50 to 0.40% while iron will attract 1% octroi.The meeting also decided to call tenders with increased rates of octroi.
In the meanwhile, a debate was ensued on survey of transit fee. Corporators Pappu Sharma and Siva Mohod alleged that the survey was conducted in a wrong way and demanded to do it afresh. Rajesh Mishra of Shiv Sena also strongly opposed the hike.
Omprakash Agrawal, in-charge municipal commissioner, said that tenders would be recalled in the near future. The BJP boycotted the meeting.
Meanwhile, businessmen and industrialists belonging to Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce and Industry staged a day-long dharna against the octroi rate hike near the district collectorate on Tuesday.
Octroi is in force in Maharashtra and 22 municipal corporations of the entire country. Other states in the country had abolished octroi after the value added tax came into force, the VCCI leaders said. The leaders alleged that the state government was trying to impose local cess as an alternative to abolish octroi. A memorandum was submitted to the district collector in this connection.