New Delhi, Nov 19 (PTI) The debt-ridden EDMC today proposed a 45 per cent hike in base unit area value for property tax assessment in addition to seeking a Rs 600 cr grant from the Delhi government to come out of the red.
Municipal Commissioner Manish Gupta presented the Revised Budget Estimate 2014-15 and Budget Estimate 2015-16 during a special meeting of Standing Committee of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
Unlike the Rs 10 crore dedicated fund allocated by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and Rs 6 crore allocated by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), the east corporation has no such pledged fund for the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ drive its area.
“We have a requirement of at least Rs 600 cr from the Delhi government, interest-free to put us out of debt. Unlike North or South Corporations, EDMC doesn’t have much sources of revenues either,” a senior EDMC official said.
“We propose a 45 per cent increase in base unit value of the property. Together with that, three new taxes like professional, betterment and education cess has been proposed,” Gupta said.
“We are going to hire an agency that will conduct a survey of all the properties that are under the jurisdiction of EDMC.
This will help us to bring the entire property in tax net,” he said.
This will play a vital role as far as the increasing of corporation revenue is concerned. We will request the government to withdraw the policy that does not allow us to collect house tax from unauthorised colony, he said.
However, the standing committee has rejected the proposal of brining three new taxes, with its chairman, B B Tyagi saying, “We rejected the proposal of three new taxes that municipal commissioner has proposed for this (financial) year.”
For development of roads and small drains, it has proposed Rs 220 crore which is higher than the previous year. In 2013-14, the development budget was Rs 110 crore.
The corporation also proposed Rs 1,251.84 crore income from this financial year (2013-14). In the same financial year, the corporation earned revenue of Rs 931.6 crore.
The east corporation has also proposed an increase in one-time parking charges that are levied on new vehicles, echoing the proposals made in the budgets of the other two civic bodies too.
