Be ready to pay more taxes to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) as the civic body has proposed a series of taxes to bridge the shortfall in its annual revenue collection. From education cess, increase in lump sum one time street charge, street charges, congestion charges and charging fees for naming of parks and streets, the corporation has proposed new taxes. A close look at the NMC budget for financial year 2015-16 reflects deep financial crisis in the civic body.
Municipal Commissioner Praveen Gupta presented the Revised Budget Estimate 2014-15 and Budget Estimate 2015-16 during a special meeting of Standing Committee of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. The corporation proposed a 50 per cent hike in base unit area value (BUAV) for property tax assessment. “A hike of 50 per cent in BUAV for property tax assessment is proposed under Section 116 (J) of the DMC Act. The proposed increase is for colonies belonging to category ‘A’ through ‘H’. And, with this move, a revenue of Rs150 crore is expected from property tax earnings,” NDMC Commissioner Praveen Gupta said during his Budget speech.
The Opposition, however, rejected the hike in BUAV. “We oppose any move by the corporation to increase the burden of taxes on the common man,” said Congress councillor and leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel. NDMC has proposed to control the deficit to Rs700 crore in 2015-16.
The corporation has proposed a host of taxes in the budget to bridge the financial deficit and is expecting an increase in the revenue collection. With the total revenue loss of about Rs770 crore in 2013-14, the amount is estimated to rise to Rs850 crore in the year 2014-15. The total estimated revenue for financial year 2015-16 is Rs4404.11 crore and the revised estimate for financial year 2014-15 is Rs3,612.04 crore.
An increase in lump sum one-time street charge on vehicles was proposed to encourage people to use public transport. The rates for vehicles up to 6 lakh has increased from Rs4,000 to Rs5,000. For vehicles upto Rs10 lakh, rates have hiked to Rs9,000 and Rs18,000 for vehicles up to Rs20 lakh. People owning four-wheelers above Rs20 lakh will have to pay 2 per cent of the vehicle’s price. Moreover, 2.5 times more charges of the current rate for the commercial vehicles have been proposed. The proposed taxes are a single-handed weapon for the corporation to earn revenue. Moreover, Rs20 crore more income is expected from parking charges.
‘Congestion charges’ to discourage traffic jams and an increase in fee in changing of names in property tax records have also been proposed. For the first time, the corporation has also proposed cleanliness charges on organising social or religious ceremonies.
“We will first discuss and analyse the proposal before making any statement on the proposed hike. And, our reaction has nothing to do with the impending Delhi Assembly elections,” said Mohan Bhardwaj, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the BJP-led NMC.