Four councillors move HC against octroi law change

Mumbai: Municipal councillors of four separate municipal bodies from the state have moved the Bombay high court seeking declaration of an amendment made to the municipal act as unconstitutional. The state in December 2009 had published the amendment, to the Bombay Provisional Municipal Corporation and Mumbai Village Panchayat, which ensures that the state can levy a new tax — local body tax — in the place of octroi.
The four councillors — from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Thane, Kolhapur and Solapur municipal corporations — filed a petition in the high court contending that the state had caused amendment to the existing laws “only to favour the demand of the traders to do away with octroi.” Octroi duty is a major source of income for municipalities and is important for financial sustenance, the councilors said.