House tax proof may be mandatory for trade licence
The cash strapped MCD wants to make it mandatory for the citizens to show property tax receipt when they apply for issuance of various licences. Meanwhile, the talks between municipal contractors and the MCD leaders over pending payment remained inconclusive and the contractors have decided to continue with their strike. On the other hand, the opposition Congress has demanded a white paper on the alleged financial mismanagement in the MCD.
Property tax committee chairman Ved Prakash Gupta has written a letter to the municipal commissioner suggesting that those seeking issuance or renewal of trade, health or factory licences should produce a property tax receipt before being given the go ahead. The same policy should be applied for the people seeking regularisation, conversion of residential property into mixed land or commercial use or conversion of commercial plots into industrial plots, besides the ones seeking desealing of property. This will ensure that the revenue of the corporation increases, he said.
Mr Gupta has also written to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation asking it to clear their property tax and service charges as was decided in a meeting held by the lieutenant governor some time ago.
The MCD is facing severe cash crunch as it has not been able to pay salaries to its employees, while pensions for senior citizens and widows has also not been disbursed. On the other hand, the contractors have struck work since July 21 alleging that Rs 650 crores of payment was yet to be made by the corporation.
Meanwhile, the talks between striking contractors and standing committee chairman Yogender Chandolia and Leader of the House Subhash Arya remained inconclusive. “The leaders offered us Rs 60 crores payment as of now but we told them that helping us financially, it would become a problem for us as our creditors will begin hounding us for their payment,” Delhi Municipal Contractors’ Association president Sunil Vohra said. The MCD has already demanded Rs 3,500-odd crore from the Delhi government to bail them out.
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