North civic body commissioner, mayor lock horns over tax hike

The mayor and commissioner of North DMC have locked horns on the issue of a 10 per cent hike in property tax in industrial areas under the civic body’s jurisdiction and putting properties there under the category of commercial establishments.  The former has summoned a special house meeting to undo the order of the later in the case.

‘No tax hike or new tax can be imposed without the approval of the house. The commissioner has overstepped his jurisdiction and superseded the house. A special house will be summoned to undo the order,’ said Azad Singh, mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North DMC). ‘He has to take back his order and issue a fresh order immediately to nullify the effects of the previous one,’ added Singh.

The leader of the house, Mahender Nagpal said that the special house has been summoned on 5 June to discuss the matter and a motion will be passed against it.

The matter came to light when some groups of industrialists expressed their concerns to the mayor and members of the standing committee and reminded them of their promise of  ‘no new tax and no tax hike’. ‘We were surprised to know that the three municipal commissioners had passed an order to increase the property tax by 10 per cent for the industrial areas. They have also abolished the category of industrial sector and clubbed it along with the commercial cate gory,’ said Ram Kishan Singhal, chairman of the standing committee in North DMC.

In the order, signed by the municipal commissioners of the three civic bodies, all  non-residential properties on above 100 sq yards plot have been put in ‘special non-residential’ category along with commercial properties and owners will have to pay property tax at the rate of 20 per cent. The order is applicable for the current financial year starting in April. Earlier, the rate of property tax for industrial and commercial establishments were a maximum of 10 and 12 per cent respectively.

Furthermore, industrial areas were divided into sub-categories for levying property tax.

The North DMC has been most affected by the decision as it has the maximum number of 12 industrial areas- Narela, Bawana, Mangolpuri, Wazirpur, Udyog Nagar, Mayapuri, GT Karnal Road, Badli, Shahabad, Daulatpur, and Mundaka. South DMC has only one, Okhla and East DMC has two industrial areas Patparganj and Jhilmil. Commissioner P K Gupta refused to comment on the issue.