Ruckus in House as SDMC rolls back hiked property taxes

New Delhi: The SDMC on Wednesday approved the rollback of hiked property tax rates for commercial rented establishments, banquet halls and educational institutes, among others, officials said.

The final approval for the rollback was given in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation's House meeting, which was adjourned within 10 minutes of its starting due to ruckus by Congress councillors over the spread of dengue and use of obsolete fogging machines to fight vector borne diseases.

The move to rollback the increased tax rates will benefit traders and the business fraternity, according to officials of the BJP-ruled civic body

The other two civic bodies — NDMC and EDMC — are also BJP-ruled.

SDMC Mayor Mukesh Suryan said the Municipal Valuation Committee-3 (MVC-3) had recommended to nearly double the property tax on rented commercial premises, telecom towers, vacant commercial lands, vacant industries, marriage halls, banquets, educational institutions, entertainment and recreation facilities.

These recommendations were implemented by the civic body in April last year, he said.

"We have today approved 100 per cent rollback of increased tax rates on rented commercial properties and in other categories which was done on recommendations of the MVC-3. Now, traders will have to pay tax on commercial rented properties in accordance with older tax rates of 2019," Suryan said.

The SDMC House meeting witnessed a pandemonium-like situation after Congress councillors led by Abhishek Dutt created a ruckus there.

It all started when Dutt along with other Congress councillors tried to carry a fogging machine inside the House to raise the issue of obsolete machines and problems of contractual field workers in prevention of mosquito-borne diseases.

The SDMC mayor denied permission for bringing the machine following which bouncers stopped Dutt and others. This led to the ruckus.

"Contractual field workers are engaged in fogging drives to combat dengue but they have to use heavy weight obsolete machines for hours. They get paid only Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 a month while those in the NDMC are paid Rs 20,000. This is injustice to them." he said.