North civic body proposes no new taxes in budget

New Delhi: With an eye on next year’s civic polls, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, which is facing a severe financial crisis, proposed no new taxes for the next fiscal year.

NDMC commissioner P.K. Gupta, who presented the budget estimate for the next financial year, talked about tapping into new sources for revenue generation and informed that the NDMC will become the first civic body in the national capital which will earn around Rs 40 lakh per month by generating energy from waste from its Narela-Bawana plant.

Presenting, with the total budget outlay of Rs 71,99 crore, the commissioner estimated that deficit will also increase from Rs 2,754 to Rs 3,610 crore. Mr Gupta informed the standing committee that the civic body is exploiting several possibilities to bring down the deficit.

“NDMC’s staff colonies situated at Azadpur, Model Town, Bungalow Road and the vacant land at Idgah and other such properties are worth Rs 20,000 crore. These will be commercially exploited from which the corporation expects to get at least Rs 2,000 crore annually. Tenders from government agencies and PSUs have been called for the redevelopment of these properties,” said Mr Gupta.

The civic body has struck a deal with the Income Tax department for leasing out a portion of its headquarters at about Rs 88 crore annually. Rs 200 crore is expected this year from the SDMC as lease or rent and for the services it utilises at Civic Centre.

Around Rs 148 crore is expected by leasing out municipal properties for opening 855 ATMs and several hundreds crore by commercially exploiting several other properties. Mr Gupta claimed that the focus remained at sanitation, self reliance and simplification of services in the budget estimates.