The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the Municipal Corporations of increasing the fee for trade licences by 17 times that too during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the Delhi BJP said that the decision was taken following the direction of the Delhi Government-appointed director of local bodies through the Municipal Reform Committee.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) increased the trade license fee from Rs  500 to Rs 8,625 for A-B category and for C and D category from Rs 500 to Rs  5,750 per square metre.

Furthermore, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has increased the rate of trade licence for A-B category from Rs 200 to Rs 3,000 and for C-D category from Rs 200 to Rs  2,000 per square meter, he said.Bhardwaj said that the move will affect traders badly as they continue to struggle during the pandemic

“We all are well aware of the distress that small businesses had to face in the past 18 months of the pandemic. So many businesses had to shut down while some had to substantially scale down their operations. In these testing times, when the Delhi Government is trying its best to reduce the financial pressure on these families through various measures, the BJP is indulging in downright corruption and playing abysmal politics,” he said. Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor has said that AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj is in the habit of misleading people by sensationalising the issue while the fact is that the corporations were forced to increase fees by the director of the local body of the Delhi Government.