PANAJI, GOA, March 29 (iNews): 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.<\/p>\n
‘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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In the Portuguese days, the religious tax was used to fund educational activities in the colony (by missionaries), which had earned the sobriquet ‘Rome of the East’ because of its riches and splendor as well as the extent of
Christianity’s sway in the eastern part of the world.<\/p>\n
[HPI note: According to http:\/\/www.cathnewsindia.com, the change is now in effect.]<\/p>\n