Trifurcation of the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi might have resulted in several administrative hurdles, but has done wonders for the three civic bodies so far as revenue collection is concerned.
In an unprecedented development, the trio has managed over Rs1,000 crore as property tax in one financial year in 2012-13. As officials put it, strict enforcement and punitive measures against defaulters including bank account attachment resulted in huge tax collection. The corporation has together collected Rs1074 crore as property tax in 2012-13. The previous best of property tax collection in the unified MCD was Rs776 crore in 2003-04. This assumes greater significance, as there was no amnesty or waiving off penalties and interests of the property owners that was earlier a practice by the corporation.
Also, the three corporations have individually also registered remarkable growth in tax collection as compared to previous years. While the South Corporation collected Rs604 crore as property tax in 2012-13, the North Corporation collected Rs326 crore and East Corporation has collected Rs140 crore. The Corporation recorded the increase in revenues of 51 per cent, 83 per cent and 89 per cent respectively compared to the previous year.
For the first time, the officials of the three corporations went after the Government agencies and big commercial units that were evading property tax worth crores of rupees. Bank account of big Government agencies like DDA, Power Grid Corporation, BPCl among others were freezed by the municipal bodies. DDA was forced to pay up their pending dues of Rs120 crore to SDMC, Rs18 crore to EDMC and Rs57 crore to NDMC as property tax. DDA still owes around Rs500 crore more as property tax to the three corporations.
In another first-of-its-kind initiative, the officials of South Delhi Corporation resorted to ‘name and shame’ tactic by beating drums and announcing the name of the tax evaders outside their properties.
Officials said some of the unique measures that were implemented for better tax collection were beating of drums outside the house and commercial establishments of property owners who defaulted on property tax. “Several measures were taken to generate awareness amongst the residents through our campaigns. These methods have worked better than our previous attempts to lure the tax payers by waiving off the penalties or interests and this will be our approach to collecting taxes in future as well,” said Assessor & Collector, SDMC, BN Singh.
Officials said the three corporations are also making efforts to bring in more properties under the tax net. “The corporation is working towards tapping more properties. A special project of providing a unique code to all properties is being initiated. It would help in increasing tax revenue,” said NDMC spokesperson, YS Mann. In the last financial year, North Corporation increased their tax payer net by 50,000 to post a total of 3,77,144 properties under tax net.