No New Property Taxes by North Delhi Municipal Corporation

The standing committee of the BJP-led North civic body did not impose any new tax and also rejected a proposal in its budget 2022-23 to raise residential and commercial property taxes, officials said Wednesday, even though the municipality faces an acute financial crisis and has not been able to pay its staff for months. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation also decided not to approve the Commissioner's proposal to reduce rebate on property taxes by 5 per cent. The move by the civic body's standing committee comes ahead of the civic polls due this year. North Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner Sanjay Goel in his budget 2022-23 presentation on November 25, 2021 had proposed to increase the property tax by 2 per cent and reduce the tax rebate from existing 15 percent to 10 percent. He had said that these moves would strengthen the financial condition of the municipality. Presenting the revised budget estimates, North Corporation Standing Committee Chairman Jogi Ram Jain said no new tax is being proposed in the civic body's budget. "Since people are still not over the coronavirus pandemic and it has adversely impacted financial condition of the public, the proposal to reduce the rebate from 15% to 10% by Commissioner North DMC was not accepted. Proposal to increase the property tax by 2% as suggested by Commissioner is also not being accepted by Standing Committee," Jain said. Jain also said that to further give relief to citizens, a substantial part of the increased property-tax on Municipal Valuation Committee-3 (MVC-3) basis has also been withdrawn by the North DMC. According to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the revised budget estimates for year 2021-22 stood at Rs 7,818.66 crore while the budget estimate for the year 2022-23 stood at Rs 7,504.91 crore. Jain said that the civic body is also striving to boost its health infrastructure at the time of the pandemic.