The Delhi Government has accepted most of the recommendations of the Fifth Delhi Finance Commission, providing 12.5 per cent of its total tax collection to municipal corporations in the city.
Presenting the Delhi Government’s action taken report on the Fifth DFC in the Assembly on Thursday, Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said that earlier this amount was 10.5 per cent as per the Third DFC recommendation.
However, the Government refused to implement the report of the Fourth DFC, saying that in any case, it has released more funds to Municipal Corporations ranging from 14 per cent to 17 per cent. The urban development Minister also presented Government’s action taken report on the Fifth DFC in the House, which was passed by voice vote.
There were a total of 171 recommendations made by the Fifth DFC, out of which 88 were accepted by the Government, 20 related with devolution of funds were accepted with amendments, 13 were for local bodies to accept, 17 were referred to committees, and 29 were rejected, the Minister informed the House.
According to the devolution formula, 12.5 per cent of tax collection that will be transferred to the local bodies will be divided into two parts.
The first part of 6 per cent will be further broken down into three per cent each. The East and North Delhi will receive 65 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively of it.
The other three per cent will be meant for all the local bodies, including the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Delhi Cantonment Board.
The remaining 6.5 per cent will be devolved to the local bodies through budgetary provisions of different departments, Jain said.
Presenting the action taken report of the Delhi Government on the Fourth DFC, Jain said that the Centre denied accepting it.
The Fourth DFC recommended the Delhi Government’s control over the local bodies, including the municipal corporations and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), he said.
“It was said by the Fourth DFC that the Delhi Government will accept recommendations to it only after the Centre accepted those for it, but they rejected it,” he said.
Jain also said the Delhi Government provided 17.6 per cent of its budget to the Municipal Corporations in 20112-13, 16.11 per cent in 2013-14, 15.34 per cent in 2014-15, and 14.40 per cent in 2015-16.
Meanwhile Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said “It is a conspiracy to paralyse the functioning of the municipal corporations,”.
Gupta said that the Government has rejected as many as 29 recommendations which were favourable to the local bodies. With the move, instead of providing relief to the civic agencies, it will aggravate their financial crises, he said.