While the Kejriwal government has issued an advisory putting a restraint on the collection of taxes from unauthorised colonies, the MCD has gone against the Delhi government and proposed the collection of property taxes from these colonies. Notably, there are as many as 243 unauthorised colonies in East MCD with over 400 colonies each in South and North MCDs.
The Delhi government has asked the MCDs not to collect taxes from these unauthorised colonies till <g data-gr-id="26">approval</g> of the layout plan by them.
In an advisory issued to the Commissioners of all three Municipal Corporations earlier, the Delhi government had directed that the property tax should be levied on unauthorised colonies from the date of approval of the layout plan of these colonies by the MCD. In other words, it means that property taxes should be collected from unauthorised colonies once they are duly regularised.
“On one side the government is pressurising Corporations to raise revenue <g data-gr-id="37">while</g> on the other, it is trying to curtail their rights. It is not possible to improve financial condition without collecting property and <g data-gr-id="35">other type</g> of taxes from unauthorised colonies,” Lata Gupta, Chairman of Standing Committee of East MCD said.
Leader of the House of EDMC, Ram Narayan Dubey, pointed out that while the property tax is being collected from two lakh families, it should ideally be fetched from at least nine lakh families.
He also added that while property tax is one of the main sources of revenue for the MCDs, enough attention is not being paid to ensure its collection.
“Corporations are authorised to provide civic services in their areas. Apart from sanitation works, Corporations provide health and primary education, maintain parks and street lights along with other essential services and hence, they must be authorised for tax collection.
“The government’s advisory will not only affect civic services in unauthorised areas but will result in huge losses of revenue to the ailing MCDs,” said MP Bhardwaj, Chairman of North MCD.