BJP slams Delhi government for imposing fresh taxes

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a demonstration outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to protest against increase in prices of essential items and imposition of Value Added Tax on items of daily use.

Carrying placards and an eight-foot-high cut-out of a milk bottle, a large number of activists gathered outside the Chief Minister's residence and shouted slogans against her.

Addressing the protesters, senior BJP leader Vijay Goel accused the Delhi Government of delaying projects related to the Commonwealth Games and then awarding them to a few favoured contractors through work orders instead of tendering process.Common man is being robbed in the name of Commonwealth Games. Sheila Dikshit government has become the government of privileged few. Money is being squandered away in the name of Commonwealth Games. The money is being spent wrongly, there is mismanagement and above all there is rampant corruption. Corruption is to the tune of millions and billions of rupees that must be probed," Goel said.

The Delhi Government in its annual Budget
raised the value added tax to 20 percent from the current 12.5 percent to finance an additional expenditure of rupees 11 billion, mainly to finance
the ensuing Commonwealth Games being stage in New Delhi.

The Delhi Government also withdrew the subsidy of rupees 40 on LPG cylinders and levied a five percent VAT on CNG.