Hill tax fine relief..... no penalty on taxes that could not be cleared during the three months of the statehood agitation.

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling: The Bengal government has exempted hill residents from paying penalty on taxes that could not be cleared during the three months of the statehood agitation.

A "memorandum" issued by H.K. Dwivedi, the principal secretary in the finance department, on Monday states that the exemption is for all government taxes "by whatever name called".

In the order, the government has acknowledged that the hill resident had to face "difficulties in making payments" during the strike period.

During the strike period, the hill residents could not pay a wide range of bills starting from electricity to telephone to road and other taxes. Payment on the Internet also couldn't be done because of a ban on Net services for most part of the agitation period.

A few locals did travel to Siliguri to make online transactions but the vast majority failed to do so.

"With the objective of giving relief to such taxpayers, the state government has decided to grant exemptions to the tax payers... From payment of penalty, late fee and fine for a period from 9th June 2017 to 15th September, 2017 for delayed payment of all state government taxes, by whatever name called including additional taxes, annual taxes, advance taxes and fees," the notice states.

Some of the residents said on Tuesday they had already paid the late fee for various taxes since the strike was withdrawn from September 27. "In the past two months, I have already paid the penalties," said a resident.

It is not clear if the fines that have already been paid would be adjusted at a later stage.

In a separate order, the state government has also decided to grant 15 days' "Special Casual Leave" for those who attended office during the strike period.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang thanked the government for the exemption.