SDMC creates record, collects highest-ever property tax
8 July 2015 1:26 AM GMT
Amid tussle with the Delhi Government over financial issues, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) claims to have collected an all-time high property tax of Rs 368.56 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The Corporation has received additional property tax of over Rs 92 crore against the corresponding period in the last fiscal. In <g data-gr-id="27">2014-15</g> SDMC had collected Rs 276.42 crore in the first quarter.
“In the first quarter (April to June), SDMC has collected Rs 368.56 crore as property tax. The corresponding figure for the last fiscal was Rs 276.42 crore. This is a record collection in SDMC’s history, since its inception in 2012,” said Standing Committee Chairman Radhey Shyam Sharma, adding that the Corporation has also increased its number of taxpayers.
“The number of taxpayers for the first quarter of this fiscal is 3.14 lakh – an increase of 78,267 from the corresponding period last fiscal, when it was 2.35 lakh,” said Sharma. He said the civic body has targeted Rs 650 crore in the financial budget of 2015-16 and Rs 346 crore has already <g data-gr-id="40">being</g> collected in the first quarter of the financial year.
“If we collect revenue from property taxes this way then we will definitely get Rs 700 crore as property tax in this financial year. It means that we will have extra of Rs 50 crore which can be used in extra development projects,” Sharma said. In the previous financial budget (2013-14) the target of tax collection was at Rs 600 crore of which only Rs 545 crore was achieved.
The agency had issued over two lakh advisories to the property owners of which 1.54 lakh are commercial properties and 40,000 are government buildings, big complexes and farmhouses.
According to the SDMC, most of the <g data-gr-id="33">tax payers</g> have taken the advisory seriously and paid their property tax. “At present there are 3.85 lakh registered property <g data-gr-id="45">tax payers</g> in the South Corporation and we will soon start providing unique identity cards to all of them,” Sharma said.
The SDMC, which is the only Municipal Corporation among all the other Corporations to stay out of the on-going financial crunches faced by them, has augmented its revenue generation through other sources. “We cover about 638 <g data-gr-id="38">sq</g> km in terms of our <g data-gr-id="39">expanse</g> and besides property tax, we earn through parking and advertising,” a senior SDMC official said.
We owe 'no rent' to North MCD for Civic Centre: SDMC
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Tuesday claimed that it "does not owe" any rent to the Civic Centre-headquartered North MCD, and said differences if any, between the two civic bodies, on the issue would be "internally resolved". The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was trifurcated into – north, south and east corporations in 2012. The Civic Centre on Minto Road falls in North Delhi <g data-gr-id="62">area,</g> and houses SDMC and North MCD. While East Delhi Municipal Corporation is headquartered in Patparganj in east Delhi, the SDMC is yet to get its headquarters proposed in Dwarka.
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