MCD officials to propose property tax hike

Officials of municipal corporations are expected to propose an increase in property tax and introduction of betterment’ and ‘professional’ taxes in the Budget 2015-16.

However, at least the property tax proposal will be opposed by the elected councillors of the civic agencies as the move will have serious repercussions on the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

After the introduction of the proposed Budget for the next financial year in a special meeting of a corporation, the budgetary allocations are put to vote in the respective House meetings.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation will propose its Budget 2015-16 on Tuesday, followed by the north civic agency on Wednesday and East Corporation on Thursday.

Sources in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation said that the civic agency is likely to introduce betterment tax. “Residents of the areas where the civic agency has done some development work, have to pay the betterment tax,” said a source in north civic agency.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation is likely to introduce professional tax. “Anybody earning over Rs 1 lakh has to pay professional tax,” said the source.

All the three corporations are planning to increase base unit area value of different locations under their limits ultimately increasing property tax, he added.

But councillors said they will not pass the proposals in their House meetings. “We will make sure such taxes are not passed in the House meeting as it will send a wrong message to general public which will in turn have an affect on Assembly polls,” said a councillor of East Corporation.

Civic agencies have categorised posh areas like Defence Colony, Greater Kailash and South Extension as category ‘A’, and other areas as ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ so on and so forth.

According to the proposed rates the property tax will go up to 40 per cent. “Opposition has been claiming that the North and East Corporations are virtually heading to bankruptcy. So with an aim to generate more revenue the civic agencies are proposing a hike in property tax,” said a source.

The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act section 116 (J) Indexation of unit area value states that if the base unit area value of any vacant land or any covered space has not been revised for three years, it will be lawful to increase or decrease the base unit area values.

During the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the base unit area value was increased, the source added. “Since 2009 the base unit area value has not been revised,” he said.