NGO Threatens Lagodekhi Authority With Court Action

NGO Threatens Lagodekhi Authority With Court Action

The ‘Georgian Civil Development Association’ has reacted firmly to the events taking place in Lagodekhi. The NGO is concerned with taxes collected illegally by Lagodekhi City Hall and large arrears of rent that have been wrongly accumulated regarding the personal commercial property of people living in the city.

At a press conference, Georgian Civil Development Association experts talked about cases where the law has been violated regarding the monitoring of the local budget. They also warned that they would sue in court, to put a stop to the illegal practices of Lagodekhi City Hall.

According to Mamuka Iskandarashvili, an economist with the Georgian Civil Development Association the existing law does not take into account the rent established by the City Hall for ‘trade allowance’. “This type of rent only applied for one year. The reality is that we have already abolished this type of rent but taxes that have been paid illegally are impossible to repay back to people. This all comes to an amount of approximately 3000 laris. According to the law, this money must be returned to its rightful owner but City Hall is not willing to do this. This is a concrete violation of law”, announced Iskandarashvili. 

According to a decision made by City Hall, any commercial land over 300 square meters is taxed in Lagodekhi. We think that the rent set should only refer to that space which is occupied by the building itself and its sanitary-technical zone. According a decision made by City Hall, each resident uses an area of 300 square meters which is not correct. The population has gathered a great deal of rent arrears as a result. The space used by the residents must be recalculated and for this reason we will have to appeal to the court and demand that it abolishes these rules made by City Hall”, Giorgi Bokeria, Head of Georgian Civil Development Association, told us.

The Governor of Lagodekhi, Giorgi Tsverava says that the accusations made by NGOs are baseless, adding: “As it has become well-known to everyone, Georgian Civil Development Association condemned our decision about the tax set on the usage of over 300 square meters of land. The government came to this decision in accordance with regulations adopted in 1999 by Chkhenkeli and Gegechkori. Due to these regulations, commercial areas, covering over 300 square meters are taxed. If any of the residents of Lagodekhi condemn this regulation, they can appeal to their appropriate tax office. The tax on ‘trade’ was registered with the Ministry of Justice. Afterwards it was protested against and opposed by the NGO - because this tax was not withdrawn in June 2005. But in December City Hall abolished this regulation.”

The residents demand that they are repaid their money and that the heavy taxes are abolished.

                                                                      Gela Mtivlishvili from Kakheti