No new taxes in MCD 2007-2008 budget proposals

New Delhi, Dec 8: No fresh taxes have been included in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's budget proposals for 2007-2008, unveiled in the MCD Standing Committee today, in a bid to provide some relief to the common man in Delhi, who has borne the brunt of demolition and sealing drives in the last few months.

Building of additional parking sites in Delhi and undertaking several new road projects with an eye on the 2010 Commonwealth Games, steps towards use of information and communication technologies for efficient municipal administration and better civic services and construction of new community halls to meet needs for religious functions are among other proposals in the MCD budget for 2007-2008, announced in the Standing Committee by MCD commissioner A K Nigam along with the revised budget estimates for 2006-2007.

Also proposed in the 2007-2008 budget are introduction of a scheme of cash incentive of Rs 300 to each girl child from the new academic session to motivate girls to continue their studies, building CNG crematoriums at Nigambodh Ghat and Punjabi Bagh and establishing crematoriums for dogs to prevent pollution in the Yamuna.

Unveiling the revised budget estimates for 2006-2007, Mr Nigam said there was expected to be a several fold increase in revenue from advertisement tax, from Rs 19.90 crore in 2005-2006 to Rs 85 crore expected in the current financial year.

''For identifying new advertising sites and advertising graphics in consonance with teh directions of the Supreme Court and to increase revenue from advertisement tax, a revenue augmentation committee was constituted this year. The MCD hopes to earn revenue to the tune of Rs 85 crore from display of advertisements through unipoles, LED screens and motor vehicles,''Mr Nigam said.

There had been a lot of progress on the parking front also. So, while there were only 94 parking sites one year ago, the MCD has this year added over 200 new parking sites into their fold. Further, work on construction of multi-level automatic car parking on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis will be taken up at 19 sites during 2007-2008, Mr Nigam said.

Technical bids for some of the locations have been received and the entire car parking facility was likely to be upgraded before the forthcoming 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He also stated that in the current financial year, the MCD had made several efforts to strengthen their revenue base so that property tax collection was strengthened and professionalised. As a result of its efforts, the MCD was able to collect Rs 43.17 crore from government agencies upto November this year, as against the corresponding period next year In this context, he said the Delhi High Court had ordered early payment of 50 per cent of the total outstanding dues of Rs 140.86 crore from the Delhi Jal Board.

He said the property tax collection by the MCD till now was Rs 512 crore against the collection of Rs 374 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The revised budget estimates for 2006-2007 show a surplus of Rs 75542.76 lakh while the budget estimates for 2007-2008 show a surplus of Rs 49.91 lakh.

Also unveiled at the meeting were the revised budget estimates 2006-2007 and budget estimates 2007-2008 in respect of the slum and JJ wing.

UNI