Property tax collection swells SDMC coffer

The sustained drives conducted by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation against the property tax defaulters has started showing results as the civic body collected almost double of the tax amount collected by its North counterpart over the first six months of the current fiscal.

With the collection of nearly Rs 672 crore till October 5, the South Corporation is way ahead of North Delhi Municipal Corporation which has collected Rs 310 crore during the same period despite having more properties than SDMC.

The officials of the property tax department said sustained drives have yielded encouraging results.

“We have led massive drives against property tax evaders and realised hefty sum as penalty. Property tax is one of the major sources of revenue generation for the civic bodies. This has helped in improving our financial condition,” said a senior property tax department officer.

According to the data collected by the property tax department of the South and North Corporations, the SDMC is moving closer to achieve the budget target of Rs 1134 crore for the financial year.

On the other hand, the North Corporation has failed to collect even half of the budget target of Rs 698 crore.

Maximum collection

The South Corporation’s data shows that maximum tax amount has been collected from the central administrative zone which has several upscale markets such as Lajpat Nagar, Greater Kailash and South Extension.

A total of Rs 107.4 crore has been recovered from the central zone followed by the south zone where the collection figures stood at Rs 88.93 crore.

The south zone too has a number of posh residential areas like Green Park, Hauz Khas, Safdarjung Enclave and Vasant Vihar.

“These colonies being in the list of A-category of properties have resulted in high tax collections,” said an official.

The property tax collection in west zone and Najafgarh zone of South Delhi Municipal Corporation has been at Rs 45.12 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively.