Property tax hike, redevelopment of Meherchand Market proposed in SDMC Budget

Hike in property tax, levying professional tax, redeveloping an old mart and pedestrianisation of streets in market areas lacking parking facilities were proposed by the BJP-led South Delhi Municipal Corporation in its budget on Tuesday.

South Delhi Municipal Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel said this while presenting the SDMC's revised budget estimates for 2018-19 and budget estimates for the year 2019-20 at the Civic Centre here.

"We plan to increase the earnings of the corporation through various avenues, and one of them is hiking of property tax, which we have proposed in the budget. There is also a provision to levy a professional tax for the year 2019-20, from which an income of Rs 30 crore is expected for that year," Goel said.

The proposed revised budget estimates for the current financial year stands at Rs 5,244.14 crore, while the budget estimates for the next fiscal has been proposed to be Rs 5437.97 crore.

In the budget 2019-20, it has been proposed to levy property tax on residential properties according to various category of colonies.

The proposed rates for residential properties falling under categories A and B is proposed to be at 14 per cent, instead of 12 per cent; for categories C, D and E, it would be 12 per cent instead of 11 per cent; and eight per cent instead of seven in F, G and H category colonies.

It is also proposed to charge property tax at the rate of 15 per cent of annual property value for special commercial non-residential properties and other non-residential properties.

Later, interacting with reporters, Goel said about 6.44-lakh properties were surveyed through a door-to-door survey from September 2017-May 2018. The exercise resulted in the identification of 1.83-lakh properties, which were out of property tax net, he said, adding that the idea was to bring them into the tax net.

Among other proposals, the commissioner also proposed to provide one-time rebate on payment of property tax at a rate of 10 per cent instead of 15 per cent. The budget has also proposed a one per cent education cess.

Other proposals include redevelopment of the Meherchand Market, an upscale commercial zone in Lodhi Colony, and pedestrianisation of streets in market areas which lack parking facilities.

"The redevelopment plan of the Meherchand Market has been sent to the technical committee of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)," Goel said.

The focus in the budget this year is on education and public health, besides completing projects proposed earlier, including 20 new automated multi-level parking at different places, the commissioner said.

The commissioner added that 26 sentinel hospitals had been identified for monitoring vector-born diseases like dengue and chikungunya.