While the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) is blaming the Delhi Government for lack of funds, leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel while giving his Budget speech, blamed the Corporation itself for all the mess on Friday.
According to the revised Budget estimates of the Corporation Commissioner, the North MCD generated a revenue of Rs 2,924.42 crore in the year 2012-13 against the estimated Rs 3,7712.09 crore.
In 2013-14 actual income was Rs 2,368.33 crore against the estimated Rs 3,457.41 crore and in the year 2014-15 it was Rs 2,376.61 crore against Rs 3,612.04. In 2015-16, the civic body generated revenue of Rs 2,662.73 crore while it had estimated to generate Rs 4,781.76 crore. In current year the agency had targeted to generate Rs 3,906.47 crore while it has only generated Rs 1,658.72 crore till end of November. The shoking part is that Corporation’s revenue is going down every year.
Goel said, “This is a created financial crisis as the civic body, which covers most parts of the national Capital, has fallen short in collecting their targeted revenue since its trifurcation in year 2012 and surprisingly the revenue collection also shows a sinking trend during these years. Financial mismanagement is a major reason of this crisis.”
The Corporation has hiked taxes in different slabs in last few years, developed resources and expanded area of tax collection but still short to achieve revenue target. Property tax as a source of revenue is not being utilised fully. Only 35 per cent properties are in the tax net. No stern action is being taken against the defaulters,” said Goel.
He further said, “Close to Rs 900 crore in terms of property tax is due against various Government departments. Significant steps need to be taken for collection of this amount as soon as possible. Advertising department is also not working as per its capacity. As against the set target of Rs 35 crore, only Rs 13 crore was earned for 2015-16. If remaining 8 clusters are allotted on the existing rates, annually Rs 30 crore can be earned as revenue. Measures need to be taken to collect outstanding dues from Government departments like Indian Railways, Delhi Metro, Delhi Transport Corporation etc. The departments must take it seriously; otherwise the shutters of the Corporation will be closed one day”.
Raising doubts over Corporation’s commitment to improve health services, the leader said, “A Budget of Rs 815 crore earmarked for the year 2017-18 for medical assistance and public health is inadequate considering the population of the area. Corporation’s Ayush hospitals face lack of staff and crunch of funds. I demand that all vacant position in these hospitals be filled at the earliest. Budget earmarked for dealing with the water and vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, malaria should be raised from Rs 80 crore to procure fogging machine, anti-larva spray, etc.”
Goel said it is quite surprising that the corporation started with zero opening balance in 2015-16 which is violation of section 110 of DMC (Delhi Municipal Corporation) act. He further said, “I had written to additional commissioner of finance and enquired about how salaries were paid with zero balance but did not get any satisfactory answerIJ
“The corporation has not met any of the identified targets so failed to get revenue. The corporation needs to increase revenue in order to achieve ambitious targets. Many projects due to lack of funds have not implemented. Schools under corporation are still lack of basic infrastructure. Even Model schools of corporation lag behind as they are not equipped with science rooms, library, and CCTV cameras” he said.