The three municipal corporations will not spare a single tax defaulter in the city. From commercial to residential buildings, Government to private property owners, all will have to cough up property taxes.
Moreover, Government institutions like DDA, BSES, PGCIl and DTl are some of the big names that haven’t paid property tax amounting to crores. East, North and South municipal corporations have approached these Government departments to improve their fiscal health.
There are a total of 10 lakh properties under the jurisdiction of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC). While 3,35,000 property owners pay their taxes, the remainder 6,65,000 owners are yet to file property tax returns. This has led to massive backlog insofar as revenue generation for NMC is concerned.
In East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), there are a total of 4 lakh-5 lakh properties of which 2 lakh properties pay taxes. Earlier the corporation had said all properties falling under the jurisdiction of the municipal body prior to the period April 2011 would be exempt from property tax. In 2014, Additional Solicitor General of India directed the corporations and said not a single tax defaulter will be spared, including the ones exempt till 2011. Moreover, the tax defaulters will have to pay taxes with one per cent interest too.
“Things get diluted due to politics. Earlier the municipal corporation used to follow unilateral system to fetch property tax, which was further changed to rateable value system where the value of a building is based on its size, location, and other factors to be borne by the owner,” said an official in NMC.
Slightly better off than its two counterparts, SDMC has also issued notices to all tax defaulters. “In fact, many Government departments, including Delhi Government schools, Delhi Transco limited, DDA, DUSIB, are among the major defaulters that owe crores of property tax to the EDMC. The East Corporation is facing acute shortage of funds and finding it difficult to even disburse salaries to its employees.
The realisation of all the due property tax could come as a great relief in such crunch situations,” said East Delhi Mayor Meenakshi. Property tax of approximately Rs116 crore is due by Delhi Development Authority, Rs1.03 crore by Delhi Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation (DTIDC) ltd, Rs61 lakh by Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), Rs35 lakh by Mandoli Jail, Rs88.99 lakh by Delhi Transco limited and Rs2.98 crore by GTB Hospital, a municipal official said.