North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) Commissioner Varsha Joshi on Monday proposed two per cent increase in property tax in order to generate more revenue to fund stalling projects and to manage other expenses.
Presenting revised budget estimates for the year 2019-20 and budget estimates for the year 2020-21of Rs 9303.57 Crore in the special meeting of Standing Committee, Joshi proposed the hike in ‘A to H category of properties’.
A betterment tax at the annual rate of 15 per cent was also proposed by the Commissioner for financing infrastructure works, development of transportation facilities and redevelopment of colonies. She said the Corporation will earn expected Rs 450 Cr annually with the move.
The Commissioner said the civic body collected Rs 406.20 crore as property tax this year which is Rs 25.22 Cr more than that of the last year. Also, she said that 10166 more property tax payers were added in tax net.
“North Corporation is the first civic body in Delhi to provide fully secure E-Certificate for changing name in property tax records under ease of doing business. If the name of the owner of a property gets changed in registrar of property records, it will automatically appear in the property tax records. So far Rs 2.5 Cr has been collected from the name change in the record,” she added.
Explaining efforts to make North Corporation self reliant, the Commissioner said that a slew of measures will be taken to increase revenue including allowing mobile towers on 800 municipal buildings to fetch Rs 28.8 Cr, advertisements on all municipal vehicles and in parks to fetch Rs 6.4 Cr, Rs 5 crore from auctioning four new clusters for outdoor advertising, renting out vacant municipal buildings.
Joshi also said that a plant to generate electricity and CNG from animal waste in Bhalaswa Dairy with the help Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has already been started. The corporation will also install solar energy panels for 1500 KW in its primary school, she added.