No property tax hike in NDMC budget due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation is not proposing any increase in property tax in its budget in view of the financial strains faced by people due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Goel said on Thursday.

However, given the financial condition of the civic body, "I request the standing committee (of the NDMC) to consider a minor increase of 2 per cent in property tax rates for financial year 2022-23," he said in his speech while presenting the budget on Thursday.

We also request that the rebate enjoyed by people on early filing of property tax be reduced from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, he said.

According to the NDMC budget, the revised budget estimates for the year 2021-22 stands at Rs 7,321.37 crore, while the budget estimate for the year 2022-23 stands at Rs 5,808.24 crore.

Meanwhile, AAP MLA Atishi in statement issued by her party alleged that the corporation has "proposed an increase in property tax by 2 per cent".

She said the NDMC's budget for the financial year 2022-2023 has "reduced".

From year 2021-22 to 2022-23, the budget has "come down" from over Rs 7,300 crore to about Rs 5,800 crore. Each councillor has been "allotted Rs 1 crore in the budget" while payments of contractors are pending, she alleged in the statement.

Earlier, Goel in his budget speech said the NDMC has submitted a report to the Delhi government on a project worth Rs 774 crore on processing and disposing legacy waste and new garbage.

In the last one year or so, 19.45 lakh tonne garbage had been segregated, and the height of the mound at Bhalswa landfill site has been reduced by 11 metres, he added.

Also, 24 trommel machines have already been set up and 30 machines are under the process of pre-installation testing, he added.

Officials later sharing details from his budget, in a statement said that Rs 447.94 crore worth property tax had been collected till October 2021, which is Rs 69.80 crore more than the corresponding figures for the period last year.

Digitalidation of 4.3 lakh properties and synchronisation with UPIC has been done, and rest is under process; 110 bank accounts and 14 properties been attached for non-payment of due property tax; and 30,852 new properties identified, it added.

In his budget speech, Goel also said that the NDMC has chalked out a plan to provide parking for 13,500 cars by developing multi-level parkings at 19 locations, including at Pitampura, Gandhi Maidan, Qutub Road, Sant Nagar and Pusa lane, and work has started on most of the major projects.

In addition, stack parking facilities at Hanuman Setu near Nigam Bodhghat, and Fatehpuri area are also planned, he added.