SDMC political leadership nixes proposal to hike tax

NEW DELHI:  The political leadership of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) again stuck to the populist agenda by deciding not to increase property and professional tax for the next financial year (2019-20).Senior bureaucrats in the SDMC have opposed this move, saying property tax rates was not raised for almost a decade now due to political pressure. If this goes on, they warned, the South civic body will turn bankrupt like its North & East counterparts.

Incidentally, SDMC commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel in December had proposed an increase of maximum two per cent in residential property of colonies falling under category A and B. Goel had also proposed one per cent education cess on property tax.But on Tuesday, Bhupinder Gupta, chairman of the standing committee of the South civic body, announced that there would be no change in property and professional tax.

The political leadership’s decision goes against the SDMC commissioner’s proposal to increase property tax rates on residential properties according to the category of colonies. Also, Goel had proposed to charge property tax at 20 per cent of annual property value for special commercial /non-residential properties and other 15 per cent on  non-residential/ commercial properties.