The Mudon Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) have ordered that the residents of three villages in Mudon Township, in Mon State, pay a housing tax on homes built between 2007 and 2009.
According to a Kawn Hlar resident, over the last two days the Mudon TPDC has held meetings to the villages of Youngdoung, Hnee-padaw and Kwan-hlar, requesting housing taxes on homes built during the last two years.
A source form Young Doung village, who built a house in 2007 says, “Two–story brick homes are 450,000 kyat, for one-story cost 350,000 kyat. And then wooden house have to pay 250,000 kyat. When they order, we must do what they say. We have never seen and never heard of paying a housing tax. Now in our village, 30 households have to pay a tax for building [their homes].”
According to a villager who attended housing in one of the three villages, the Mudon TPDC called on the village headman, and ordered that villagers who built a new house between the years of 2007 and 2009 attend a meeting in the local Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) office. Homeowners were informed that they had to pay the new housing taxes by October 4th of this year.
A villager from Hnee-padaw stated, “We can’t pay the cost they asked, but the authorities said that if we can afford the cost of building a house, we can pay this small tax. We don’t want to pay a house tax, because we never see of heard of one before. ”
A second Hnee-padaw resident has reported that some villagers have resorted to selling their rubber fields in order to afford the unexpected housing taxes.
Mudon Township contains a total of 42 villages, although so far authorities have only implemented housing taxes in the three villages mentioned. However, residents from the township’s other 39 villages have expressed fears that similar taxes will soon be imposed on all Mudon Township homeowners.
On August 28th, IMNA published an article in Burmese and Mon reporting on similar housing taxes imposed in Karen State. According to IMNA’s report, the Karen State villages of Kayar and Thanle have also been taxed on homes built between the years of 2007 and 2009. Kayar homeowners were ordered to pay a flat-line tax of 200,000 kyat; Thanle villagers, who were asked to pay between 1.1 million and 1.4 million kyat (depending on home structure and size) are still in the process of getting their housing taxes reduced to a flat-line tax of 900,00 kyat. IMNA’s August 28th article also reported on housing taxes imposed earlier this year on homeowners in Hta-ma-tha village, located in Kyaikmayaw Township in Mon State.
