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Among the points of the draft budget of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation for discussion before the General Board is the much-debated ‘annual charge for pet dogs in the city. While the ‘charge’ has been in existence since at least 1974, according to officials, only two persons have paid the charge voluntarily since 2019, officials said.
The approval of the annual draft budget of Rs 4,830.75 crore, by the Standing Committee last week, sparked off a debate on a “tax” of Rs 1000 per annum to be levied on owners of pet dogs. However, the tax has been in existence since 1974. According to VMC officials, the initial charge to be paid by owners of pet dogs to the civic body was Rs 5 in 1974. While officials are not aware when and how the charge was increased, it was in the 2015-16 budget of the VMC that the charge was fixed at Rs 500 per year. “Since the charge has to be paid voluntarily at the respective Ward office, there is no way that the VMC can actually impose this charge on residents. As a result, the civic body has actually never collected the charge,” an official said.
Last week, the Standing Committee proposed that individuals who paid the charge for pet dogs for three years in advance would have to pay Rs 1000 instead of Rs 1500, in order to encourage more pet owners to pay the charges. Standing Committee Chairman Dr. Hitendra Patel, however, feels that enforcing the charge is tough. Patel told this newspaper, “Since 2019, only two persons have been paying the annual charge for pet dogs. In 2019-20, only one person paid the charge, in 2020-21, two persons paid, and in 2021-22, only one person paid the charge again… Both are from Ward 10. So, when we looked at the fact that the VMC has never been able to generate this revenue as no one is coming forward to pay the fixed charge of Rs 500 per year, we have decided to offer an incentive to those who pay three years’ charge in advance… Provisions have been made for online payment too as we feel many people skip going to the Ward office. Since pet dog owners are usually well-to-do persons, we are expecting that they will now pay the charge online. Enforcing it may still be difficult.”
The VMC Opposition, which has sent over 350 questions for discussion of the Budget, has raised objections to the dog charges. Opposition leader Ami Ravat said that if the civic body intends to generate revenue from owners of pet dogs, it should also offer services to justify the charges. “There should be a free veterinary consultation by the civic body for pets. There is no policy for dog owners and so there is no rationale behind collecting the tax.”
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