Vadodara civic body to reduce 'dog tax' after poor response from pet owners

Pet dog owners believe civic body should not collect such a tax because it does nothing for benefit of animals

With the Vadodara Municipal Corporation's move to collect “dog tax” getting a poor response, the civic body has decided to reduce the amount from the next financial year and make the process easier for pet owners to increase compliance, officials said on Sunday.

However, some of the pet dog owners believe the civic body should not collect such a tax because it does nothing for the benefit of the animals.

Leader of opposition in the VMC Ami Ravat said the civic body intends to collect Rs 1 crore as dog tax, and it should provide the canine owners free veterinary service and frame a dog-keeping policy for better regulation of the pets.

The VMC has decided to reduce the tax amount to Rs 1,000 for three years for a pet from Rs 500 per year charged earlier and provide a provision of online registration, officials said.

The money thus collected will be primarily used to sterilise stray dogs, VMC's standing committee chairman Hitendra Patel told PTI.

He said there are an estimated 8,000-9,000 pet dogs, or 300 to 350 in each of the 19 wards in the city, but only a few of the owners have come forward to pay the dog tax, with the collection remaining negligible.

“We have reduced the amount of tax to Rs 1,000 for three years. We have also made the provision of online registration for the dog owners. We have reduced the burden on dog lovers. They should contact us with issues affecting them so we could resolve them,” he said.

The issue is not just about collecting tax from the canine lovers, but also to "establish a dialogue" with them by encouraging them to come forward and get their pets registered, Patel said.

“We carried out sterilisation of street dogs and spent Rs 40-50 lakh per year. We will use the income collected from dog tax for good works and will proceed through a dialogue with owners,” he said.

The money collected as tax will be used in reducing the cases of street dogs biting people by caring for such animals, he said.

“People have not come forward for this despite our efforts in the past. We want more people to come forward. And this way, street dogs should be treated in such a way that the number of dog bite cases are reduced,” he said.

Vadodara resident and pet owner Devangi Dalvi termed this a “negative development” for city's dog lovers.

The administration does nothing for pet dogs. It takes steps for street dogs, but even that is not enough.

There have been incidents of violence against street dogs, but no action has been taken, she claimed.

“I believe the government should not collect tax from dog owners, because it does nothing for the benefit of such dogs. If you do something for such dogs, then you can collect tax. Tomorrow they may demand tax on feeding pigeons. I do not think this is right,” she said.

Ravat said the VMC plans to collect Rs 1 crore as dog tax and this will mean registration of 20,000 dogs.

“I have demanded that against this registration, you should give them some services. The civic body should give the pet dog owners the facility of veterinary service at a civic hospital in the city. They should have a dog-keeping policy. There were a few cases of pet dogs biting people and police took no action, nor did we have a policy on this,” she said.