South & East MCDs to levy tax on mobile towers to generate funds

While nearly 66 <g data-gr-id="35">per cent</g> cell towers in the Capital are illegal, operating under the nose of the MCDs, this decision comes as a bad news for property owners. “We have been working on the proposal, which will finalise soon. If things go well the announcement will be made soon,” informed officials of both the civic agencies.

As the North MCD has already begun collecting the taxes, South and East Corporation will soon follow suit. While property owners of these areas extract money from these mobile operators for putting up cell towers in residential and office areas, MCDs’ coffers remained empty from the same. Therefore, the Corporations have decided to extract taxes from these property owners. According to sources, the range of property tax will be mapped according to the length and breadth of the area.

“North Corporation has started extracting property taxes at commercial rates. This in turn will generate revenue for all the three MCDs as they are already reeling under severe fund crunch. Tens of thousands of property owners are minting money from mobile operators,” said an official in the North MCD. North Corporation Commissioner PK Gupta ordered the property department to carry out the task. Officials of the department have begun sending notices to the property owners regarding payment of commercial taxes.

An official in the North MCD said that the department has sent notices to around 1,500 property owners who have paid just the normal tax but not the commercial tax. 

Moreover, the Corporation is looking for more areas where mobile towers are illegally operating without the <g data-gr-id="31">MCD’s</g> knowledge. The building department has sent notices to all the property owners. There are around 3,000 and 3,670 mobile towers in the areas of North and South MCDs, of which some are legal while the rest are not.

Additionally, the South MCD has also framed a proposal for renting out the roof-top or open areas of the buildings belonging to the Corporation for installation of mobile towers to different telecom companies through <g data-gr-id="26">open bid</g> basis.