NEW DELHI: Despite its mounting financial troubles, the executive wing of North Delhi Municipal Corporation has refrained from proposing any increase in property taxes this year. It does not want to impose extra burden on people during the pandemic, the executive wing stated.
Sinking deeper into an economic mess, the corporation has seen its liabilities increase from Rs 6,176 crore last year to Rs 7,524 crore this year. The extent of crisis can be gauged from the fact that over 1/3rd
(37.4%) of overall expenditure of Rs 9,205.9 crore now directly depends on expected loan. With the commissioner unwell, the additional commissioner delivered the annual budget proposals for 2021-22 on Tuesday in a special standing committee meeting held at Civic Centre.
The additional commissioner said that the corporation would focus on expediting 17 revenue generating and property redevelopment projects to pull the troubled civic body out of debt and also new major infrastructure projects were being taken up. “We want to focus on systemic changes in existing taxes, increasing the tax net and tightening the system,” the official added.
The budget also pleads the House of councillors to make alternative arrangements like seeking a special grant or long term low interest loan. “We are confident that when the remunerative projects start being realised, we shall be able to repay such loans,” the budget states.
Many of the redevelopment projects, such as Azadpur, Rohini, Minto Road and Bungalow Road staff quarter and Town Hall redevelopment, have remained pending from several years and have been recycled in budget speeches by several successive corporation functionaries. The north corporation owns several prime properties but has so far been unable to use them for revenue generation. The reserve price for Azadpur and Model town projects alone is over Rs 15,392 crore.
The budgetary proposals claim that pandemic has severely impacted its revenue sources and Delhi government has released only Rs 212.5 crore out of the provision of Rs 850 crore. Another 106.2 crore has been deducted for loan recovery. The budget states that the process has been started for 17 multi-level car parking projects that will create additional space for 12,915 vehicles.
Following the loan repayment, which now accounts for staggering 27.7% of budgetary expenditure, the sanitation department has received 20.5% budget allocation. The corporation intends to soon hire private concessionaires for collecting and disposing municipal waste from Karol Bagh, City SP and Narela zones and also complete the process for privatising the toilet block maintenance.
Some of the new ideas proposed by the additional commissioner include setting up electric charging stations at 127 spots, redevelopment of old disused toilet complexes as coffee houses, cyber cafes; creating a dog body incinerator and creation of five new mini-forests. The civic body has also set up an annual target of in-house generation of 15.4 lakh units of solar power.
On being asked about the estimated time it would take to pull out the corporation from its financial mess, the additional commissioner said: “No one knows how much time it may take, but we will make all possible efforts.”