AVFO asks for ‘No Dues Certificate’ in order to receive visa

Now residents applying for a visa letter of recommendation (LOR) will not have their request sent to the Foundation Office until they receive a ‘no dues certificate’ from the AVFO ‘BCC’. This is a newly created document which confirms that they are paying their Auroville financial contribution. If it is found that the person has not paid their contribution in full, then the request for a LOR will not be sent until up to three years of ‘back payments’ are collected in full. 

As noted by the RA BCC, “It is important to distinguish between a contribution and a tax … contributions are waived because the individuals are working for free, or previously made large donations to Auroville (and are now aged), or are between jobs and without resources. The current approach seems to be to administer the individual contributions as a tax, without understanding or honouring this human element.”  It was also observed that the new policy appears to target only non-Indian Aurovilians who rely on a visa to stay in Auroville.