South Delhi Municipal Corporation proposes minor hike in property tax; new professional tax

New Delhi: Presenting the first deficit budget of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation since its inception three years ago, the commissioner of the civic body on Wednesday proposed a new professional tax and a minor hike in property tax to augment its revenue in the next financial year.

Emphasising on exploring new avenues of income generation and cutting down expenditure, municipal commissioner Punit Kumar Goyal also proposed scrapping old-age pension to be paid by the civic body in the next financial year.

Revised estimates of 2015-16 and the proposed estimates for financial year 2016-17 were presented by him, even as the SDMC said it was the first deficit budget for it since its inception in 2012 due to high expenditure vis-a-vis commensurate income generated.

"In order to increase revenue several measures including professional tax imposition, increase in property tax in the range of 1-2 per cent, and implementation of Municipal Valuation Committee report for revising property taxes, are proposed for the year 2016-17," he said.

"Despite all these measures, the proposed budget estimates for 2016-17 shows a deficit of Rs 200 crore," he said.

As per the revised budget estimates for 2015-16, the revenue target of Rs 3938.72 crore has been revised to Rs 3316.39 crore due to revenue shortfall of around Rs 600 crore.

The revenue generation proposed for 2016-17 is estimated to be Rs 3857.56 crore which is up by approximately Rs 500 crore as compared to the current fiscal, the commissioner said.

The 2015-16 revised budget estimates showed a deficit of about Rs 199 crore.

Stressing on actual estimation of income, Goyal said that last year the income was "overestimated" and expenditure was increased by about Rs 1,000 crore which has affected the current year budget.

The commissioner also proposed spending 21 per cent of the total budget for 2016-17 on education, while an equal percentage has been proposed as expenditure on sanitation.

The expenditure as per the proposed budget for 2016-17 have been estimated to be Rs 4,056 crore. The estimate also includes a partial expenditure on possible implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations, the commissioner said.

Pointing that the SDMC in 2012 had resolved to be "debt- free", Goyal said "I hope that through revenue, expenditure and debt management, the municipal corporation will be free of all its debts by the financial year 2017-18."

Congress councilor and Leader of Opposition in the SDMC House Farhad Suri "rejected" the budget while appreciating the commissioner for "acknowledging" overestimation of income.

"We will reject this budget when it will come up for approval in the Standing Committee. Overestimation is evident by shortfall of about Rs 55 crore in advertising revenue and Rs 50 crore in parking licence revenue comparing the budget estimates and revised estimates for 2015-16," he said.