Thaindian News

Panaji, March 29 (IANS) A tax imposed by the colonial Portuguese regime on Goa’s Hindu temples and which continued to be exacted even 50 years after the state’s liberation, will soon be scrapped.

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat Tuesday assured the state assembly that the “Derram”, a tax imposed by the Portuguese in 1880, would be revoked. The opposition earlier accused the Congress-led alliance government of persisting with the draconian tax on Hindu shrines.

“This tax is like the ‘jaziya’, which Moghul emperor Aurangzeb imposed on Hindus during his regime (in the 17th century),” opposition legislator Dilip Parulekar of the Bharatiya Janata Party told the assembly during question hour.

According to Revenue Minister Jose Phillip D’Souza, the Derram “is collected to meet the establishment of the devasthan sections in the office of the administrator of devalayas”.

The Derram, which was introduced by the Portuguese rulers in 1880, was in 1960 formally instituted by the last Portuguese governor general.

A year later, in 1961, Goa was liberated by the Indian Army from the Portuguese yoke.

In the Portuguese days, the religious tax was used to fund educational activities in the colony, which had earned the sobriquet “Rome of the East” because of its riches and splendour as well as the extent of Christianity’s sway in the eastern part of the world.

According to a written reply in the assembly by the revenue minister, the Derram was still being collected from over 100 temples in three sub-districts - Ponda, Bicholim and Canacona.

Both ruling as well as opposition legislators have opposed the tax which has communal overtones.

“Please abolish this tax or extend it to all other religious institutions. This is the year of the golden jubilee of Goa’s liberation. Please abolish it in this year,” said ruling Congress legislator Dayanand Narvekar.

Kamat later assured the house that the law would be scrapped without delay.