With Assembly polls in the offing, the BJP-led East Delhi Municipal Corporation played safe and decided not to levy any new tax or hike the existing ones in its Budget today, despite the civic body being hugely under debt.
Leader of the House in EDMC Ram Narayan Dubey, in a special meeting of the House today, finalised its Budget that has allocated Rs 480 lakh for sanitation activities of the municipal body.
The fund for development work in unauthorised colonies has also been increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore.
The cash-strapped corporation is running into losses amounting to Rs 500 crore and has been seeking help lately from the Delhi government and the Union Home Ministry, among others, to come out of the red.
The Municipal Commissioner in its Budget proposal had also sought a Rs 600-crore grant from the Delhi government to come out of the red.
While a 45 per cent hike in base unit area value for property tax assessment had been proposed by the Municipal Commissioner of East Delhi, the Standing Committee as well as the Opposition had rejected all such proposals, saying they "did not want to put additional tax burdens on the masses."
"We reject all new tax proposals and hike in the old ones. We do not wish to put burden on the masses. Besides, for cleanliness and sanitation purpose the Budget has been increased form Rs 240 lakh to Rs 480 lakh," Dubey said.
"A Budget of Rs 10 lakh for this year and Rs 500 lakh for the next financial year has also been set for LED streetlights and Rs 100 lakh has been earmarked for the facility of medical and insurance scheme for councillors," the EDMC said in a statement.
The Budget for road construction has been increased from Rs 960 lakh to Rs 3,200 lakh, it said.
The corporation would seek to boost its revenue by regularising the unauthorised parking sites and through hike in the parking fees, it said.
