<p>The North Delhi Municipal Corporation called a special House session on Monday to discuss ways to boost its revenue. Councillors have demanded that the corporation prepare a database of all properties in the Capital. <br /><br /></p>.<p>They said in the absence of a proper database of the exact number of properties, revenue can never be augmented to its optimum level.<br /><br />“After privatisation of power distribution, the first thing discoms did was to prepare data on the exact number of households having electricity connection,” said Rohini councillor B B Pandey.<br /><br />“Ironically, the corporation does not have a database of the exact number of properties in Delhi. There is an urgent need for such a database, which is also the basic minimum requirement for collecting any kind of revenue,” said Pandey. <br /><br />According to councillors, without this database, revenue in lieu of property tax and conversion charges can never be realised in real terms. <br /><br />Currently, all the three corporations together collect property tax from over nine lakh properties, of which four lakh are under the newly-formed North Delhi Municipal Corporation. There are 36 lakh properties in Delhi that are eligible for taxation, Pandey said. <br /><br />Though councillors demanded a time-bound target for preparing the database, New Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner P K Gupta said officials will prepare it soon. <br /><br />“The land and estate department has a database of properties. But we will prepare a complete set by taking data from other departments too,” said Gupta. Councillors from both Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress asked the House to find new ways to augment the corporation’s revenue.<br /><br />Satbir Sharma of Congress said it must charge rent from power distribution firms for using MCD parks to install transformers. BJP councillor Sobha Vijendra suggested that the corporation conduct a survey of small factories operating in colonies and earn revenue by taking license fee from them. <br /><br />Councillors want the corporation to organise ‘property mutation camp’ similar to ‘property tax camp’ for the benefit of residents and to augment the civic agency’s revenue as well.<br /></p>
<p>The North Delhi Municipal Corporation called a special House session on Monday to discuss ways to boost its revenue. Councillors have demanded that the corporation prepare a database of all properties in the Capital. <br /><br /></p>.<p>They said in the absence of a proper database of the exact number of properties, revenue can never be augmented to its optimum level.<br /><br />“After privatisation of power distribution, the first thing discoms did was to prepare data on the exact number of households having electricity connection,” said Rohini councillor B B Pandey.<br /><br />“Ironically, the corporation does not have a database of the exact number of properties in Delhi. There is an urgent need for such a database, which is also the basic minimum requirement for collecting any kind of revenue,” said Pandey. <br /><br />According to councillors, without this database, revenue in lieu of property tax and conversion charges can never be realised in real terms. <br /><br />Currently, all the three corporations together collect property tax from over nine lakh properties, of which four lakh are under the newly-formed North Delhi Municipal Corporation. There are 36 lakh properties in Delhi that are eligible for taxation, Pandey said. <br /><br />Though councillors demanded a time-bound target for preparing the database, New Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner P K Gupta said officials will prepare it soon. <br /><br />“The land and estate department has a database of properties. But we will prepare a complete set by taking data from other departments too,” said Gupta. Councillors from both Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress asked the House to find new ways to augment the corporation’s revenue.<br /><br />Satbir Sharma of Congress said it must charge rent from power distribution firms for using MCD parks to install transformers. BJP councillor Sobha Vijendra suggested that the corporation conduct a survey of small factories operating in colonies and earn revenue by taking license fee from them. <br /><br />Councillors want the corporation to organise ‘property mutation camp’ similar to ‘property tax camp’ for the benefit of residents and to augment the civic agency’s revenue as well.<br /></p>
