MARGAO
There’s good news in store for women members of Self Help Groups marketing their goods in the villages across the State.
In few days, these women members of registered SHGs will be exempted from payment of the sopo fees for marketing and selling their goods in the panchayat areas.
Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho announced the decision to exempt women members of registered SHGs from the payment of sopo tax levied by the sopo contractors.
In fact, during his visit to Navelim constituency as part of the programme to mark nine years of rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Panchayat Minister telephonically spoke to the Panchayat Director and instructed to issue a circular to exempt women from paying sopo tax to the collectors. “Issue a general circular exempting the women members of registered SHGs from payment of sopo tax. On one hand, the government is encouraging and training women in SHG activities and they are being taxed by way of sopo fees by the contractors in the panchayat areas,” he told the Panchayat director telephonically.
Mauvin later told the media that women through the SHGs come forward to earn a living and that the government train and support them to stand on their own legs and eke a living. “The panchayat and other authorities collect the sopo from the women. We have now decided to exempt the women from the payment of sopo,” he said.
The Panchayat Minister took the decision after a group of women members of SHGs from Salcete called on him during his visit to Navelim constituency as part of PM Modi’s nine-year rule celebration. While explaining to the Minister how the women members of SHGs are being exploited and harassed by the sopo contractors, they made a fervent plea to him to exempt women from the payment of sopo fees.
