The 10 zones of the DCC will now start a special drive from today (Monday) to bring down boards for which no registration applications were made.

The DCC has also decided that the large TV screens seen at Farmgate and the Mirpur Road near the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban will also come under the taxation scheme. If taxes are not paid these screens will be brought down too.

"Ninety-nine percent of the boards will be brought down as they have not been enlisted for taxation and we will make no compromises," said Abu Taleb, chief estate officer, DCC.

The chief estate officer said they have already run a number of such drives in the last few days.

"We have decided not to permit any overhead boards and boards hampering the beauty of the city even if they apply for registration. We bringing down these boards in last few days," said the chief estate officer.

The rate according to the tax schedule of 2002 was Tk 3 a square foot (sq ft) for billboards on private property and Tk 6 a sq ft on DCC or government owned land, which were increased to Tk 50 and Tk 150 respectively.

The rate for neon signs on private and government land was Tk 30 a sq ft, which was increased to Tk 75 and Tk 150 respectively. Businesspeople filed a case challenging the decision of increasing taxes on billboards and a stay order was given. But this year the court declared its judgement in favour of DCC.

"A 500 percent increment on tax is ridiculous but as DCC won the case we have to follow the rules," said Rafiqul Alam, president, Bangladesh Billboard Owners Association.

After the judgement was announced, DCC went on further to make businesspersons pay taxes according to the new rate by imposing a deadline to complete registrations, which happened to be yesterday (July 31). And this time the businesspeople blamed DCC for not allowing enough time for registrations.

"The time limit was not sufficient to submit data of all the boards in the city. We should have been given more time," said Kazi Moin Uddin, general manager, Neptune Ad.

DCC has fixed a target of collecting revenue of Tk. 12 crore from this sector although the corporation does have any concrete data on the number of advertising boards in the city.

"We will not permit any billboards without DCC permission and tax registration," said Abu Taleb, chief estate officer, DCC.

The chief estate officer said that from now DCC would permit billboard, signboards and neon signs in a manner that would give priority to the beauty of the city.