Door-to-door drive helps Delhi civic bodies collect Rs 119 crore more tax

The door-to-door survey of properties has helped South and North Delhi municipal corporations augment their revenue collection and widen the tax net over the last one year.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which started the survey in September 2017, has collected Rs 469.89 crore till August. The civic body’s tax collection was Rs 402.56 crore the previous fiscal, till August 2017.

“We have been able to collect Rs 66.33 crore more this year with the help of the door-to-door survey. We are aiming to complete the drive by December and utilise the excess amount for speeding up development works in our area,” Puneet Goel, SDMC commissioner, said.

Till August 14, the South and North Delhi municipal corporations have jointly increased their tax collection by Rs 119.33 crore and added over 56,000 new tax payers to their records. The SDMC now has 20,000 new taxpayers and is aiming to increase the number by two lakh by the time the survey is completed.

“In the financial year 2017-2018, the SDMC had 4.44 lakh taxpayers. During the door-to-door campaign, we collected at least six lakhs forms over the past 10 months. After verifying nearly two lakh forms, we have identified 20,000 new taxpayers. We are expecting to add more taxpayers after the completing the process,” Rahul Garg, additional commissioner, revenue, SDMC, said.

SDMC is using information such as building completion certificates, sale or purchase deeds, and rent documents to ascertain whether the tax is paid on a property or not. “We are also checking the electricity bills to ascertain if a property is liable to pay commercial tax,” a SDMC official said.

The north corporation has increased its revenue collection through property tax by Rs 53 crore till July 31. The agency began its door-to-door survey in 2015. Last year, till July 2017, the agency had collected Rs 279 crore and, this year, so far, it has collected Rs 332 crore as property tax.

“Besides an amnesty scheme and the ongoing door-to-door campaign, the issuing of unique property identification code (UPIC) cards has helped us add 36, 902 new taxpayers to the list,” a senior north corporation official said.

The number of tax payers till July 2017 was 3,25,480 while in 2018, the number of taxpayers increased to 3,62,382 under the north corporation. The East Delhi Municipal Corporation initiated the survey in July and visited 3,000 properties so far.

First Published: Aug 21, 2018 04:43 IST