Civic bodies brace for another war with AAP Govt

While the squabble between Delhi Government and Municipal Corporations in Delhi is yet to die down, another war is brewing up between the two over collection of property tax from unauthorised colonies. While the Kejriwal Government has issued a notification putting a restraint on the collection of taxes from unauthorised colonies, the civic bodies has gone against the Delhi Government order and proposed the collection of property taxes from these colonies. Notably, there are as many as 243 unauthorised colonies in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) with over 400 colonies each in South and North Delhi Municipal Corporations.

The Delhi Government has asked the corporations not to collect taxes from these colonies till the approval of layout plan by them. In an advisory issued to the Commissioners of all three corporations earlier, the Delhi Government had directed that the property tax should be levied on unauthorised colonies from the date of approval of the layout plan of these colonies by the corporations. In other words, it is meant that the property taxes should be collected from unauthorised colonies once they are duly regularised.

“The Delhi Government is pressurising corporations to raise revenue but on the other side they are trying to curtail rights. It is not possible to improve financial condition without collecting property and other type of taxes from unauthorised colonies,” lata Gupta, Chairman of Standing Committee of EDMC.

EDMC Mayor Harshdeep Malhotra pointed out that while the property tax is being collected from two lakh families, it should ideally be fetched from at least nine lakh families. He also added that while property tax is one of the main source of revenue for the corporations, enough attention is not being paid to ensure its proper collection.

“Corporations are authorised to provide civic services in their area. Apart from sanitation works, Corporations provide health and primary education, maintain parks and street lights along with other works hence they must authorise for tax collection. The Government’s advisory will not only affect civic services in unauthoreised areas but will result huge loss of revenue to the ailing MCDs,” said MP Bhardwaj, Chairman of north MCD.