The elected wing of the BJP-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Friday presented the final budget estimates for the year 2022-23 with the estimated expenditure being increased to ₹7504.91 crore from the previous estimate of ₹5808.24 crore presented in November 2021.
The civic body also presented the revised estimates for the year 2021-22, with the estimated expenditure standing at ₹7818.66 crore.
The proposal to hike property tax rates by 2% was rejected by the elected wing that aims to achieve the estimated income through sources of increased property tax collection and multi-level car parking projects, which are currently in the pipeline.
Boosting revenue
According to the estimates, a target of ₹800 crore and ₹150 crore is to be collected in property taxes from government and private properties. The proposal to increase property taxes was aimed at boosting the revenue generation of the cash-strapped North civic body that has been at the receiving end of strikes by employees over the issue of non-payment of salaries.
“We have implemented amnesty schemes in which a massive waiver on penalties and interest on pending property tax payments has been given. Similarly, the multi-level parking at Bank Street will also add to our revenue. By December 31, these sources of revenue will help achieve our estimated targets,†Standing Committee Chairman Jogi Ram Jain said.
Apart from this, the civic body said that 975 contractual field workers (CFW) — Safai Karamcharis — have been regularised since 2017, while adding that a proposal to regularise CFWs till the year 2003 will be put forward in the Standing Committee meeting.
Unfulfilled promise
North body’s Leader of the Opposition, Vikas Goel (AAP), said that the announcements to regularise contractual workers “was repetitiveâ€, while no provisions to improve the education system at civic body schools were made.
He added: “They announced to provide jobs and financial assistance to the dependents of the employees who lost their lives in the pandemic. Whereas this announcement was made last year also, not a single dependent has been given a job.â€
