ACAUT says municipal act ‘bad law’; stir from Jan

Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) has acknowledged that under the Nagaland Municipal Act (NMA) 2001, section 120, the municipal bodies have been empowered to collect taxes on entry of goods, including essential commodities into its jurisdiction. However, ACAUT said NMA was a “bad law”.
In a statement, ACAUT media cell said when laws result in abuse in the system and contributed to general harassment, it was better to either amend the law or scrap it.
Section 120 of NMA conferred legality on what was essentially an unjustified collection and for this reason ACAUT distributed its booklet to all the 60 members of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly during the July Monsoon session last listing the abuses in DMC toll-tax system and demanding that the power of the municipal bodies to levy taxes under NMA 2001 be abrogated.  ACAUT said this demand was also one of the points included in the memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister on August 30 last.
The committee also said the spat between 41 lessees and the 37 lessees began only in September after the issue of the impropriety of DMC maintaining toll tax gates and booths were raised. Therefore, the question of ACAUT favouring the 37 lessees over the other 41 lessees or vice versa was incongruent with ACAUT’s stand, said the media cell.
ACAUT asserted that its movement could not be placed between the opposing lessees by favouring one group over the other and blamed the state government for perpetuating such a system. The committee also said it did not wish to meet any government emissaries at the moment until the high-powered committee to probe illegal collections/taxations by the government agencies and the NPGs was constituted as per the resolution adopted at the public awareness rally.
Phase-1 stir suspended
Keeping the festive season in mind, the ACAUT said it was temporarily suspending its first phase of the agitation but would resume the same in January 2014.
The proposed Phase-II agitation would focus on restraining the movement of government vehicles. In phase-III, ACAUT would call for blockade of all National Highways inside the state and there would a Nagaland bandh in phase-IV.