Civic body responsible for cash crunch, alleges North MCD LoP

Though the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation has ruing lack of fund blaming the Delhi government responsible but the fact is that the Corporation is itself responsible for the mess, said Leader of Opposition (LoP) Mukesh Goel in his Budget speech on Friday. While presenting the facts, the leader said that the crisis has been created as the civic body, which covers most parts of the national Capital, has fallen short of collecting their targeted revenue since its trifurcation in year 2012 and surprisingly, the revenue collection also shows a sinking trend during the following years.

According to the revised Budget estimates of the Corporation Commissioner, the North MCD generated a revenue of Rs 2,924.42 crore in the year 2012-13 against the estimated Rs 3,7712.09 crore. In year 2013-14 actual income was Rs 2,368.33 crore against the estimated Rs 3,457.41 crore and in the year 2014-15 it was Rs 2,376.61 crore against Rs 3,612.04. In year 2015-16, the civic body generated revenue of Rs Rs 2,662.73 crore while it had estimated to generate Rs 4,781.76 crore. In the current year, the agency had targeted to generate Rs 3,906.47 crore while it has only generated Rs 1,658.72 crore by the end of November. The shocking part is that the Corporation’s revenue is going down every year.

The Corporation has hiked taxes in different slabs in the last few years, had developed its resources and has expanded area of tax collections but the revenue is declining. Property tax as a source of revenue is not being utilised fully. Only 35 per cent properties are in the tax net. No stern action is being taken against the defaulters,” said the LoP.

Nearly Rs 900 crore property tax is due against various government departments. Significant steps need to be taken for collection of this amount. The advertising department is also not working as per its capacity. As against the set target of Rs 35 crore, only Rs 13 crore was earned for the year 2015-16. If the remaining 8 clusters are allotted on the existing rates, annually Rs 30 crore can be earned as revenue. Measures need to be taken to collect outstanding dues from the government departments like Indian Railways, Delhi Metro, DTC etc. The departments must take it seriously, otherwise the shutters of the Corporation will be closed soon.

Raising doubts over the Corporation’s commitment to improve health services, the leader said: “A Budget of Rs 815 crore earmarked for the year 2017-18 for medical assistance and public health is inadequate considering the population of the area. Corporation’s Ayush hospitals face lack of staff and crunch of funds. I demand that all vacant position in these hospitals be filled at the earliest. Budget earmarked for dealing with the water and vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, malaria should be raised from Rs 80 crore to procure fogging machine, anti-larva spray, etc.”