MCD plans councillors’ fund hike

Jan 21, 2011 |

Age Correspondent

New Delhi

Blame it on election year. The cash-strapped MCD may be struggling to reduce the debt of `2,867 crores but the councillors see no problem in adding another `400 crore bill by allocating funds under their quotas. On the other hand, the standing committee, while passing the final budget estimates for the year 2011-12, on Thursday predictably rolled back the proposed five per cent hike in property tax.

A new fund has been created for councillors, who will get `1.55 crores each for development work in excess of `50 lakhs already given to them. Under the new formula, each councillor will now get `50 lakhs for improvement of roads, `25 lakhs for sanitation, `75 lakhs for maintenance and `5 lakhs for street-lighting. The mayor will now have `11.5 crores in place of `5.5 crores in his discretionary quota, while the quota for the standing committee chairman has gone up from `5 crores to `10 crores. The overall expenditure under the new formula will be more than `421 crores. Besides, `50 crores have been earmarked for providing basic civic amenities in unauthorised colonies.
The MCD elections are due in 2012 and neither the ruling BJP nor the opposition Congress councillors seemed to differ on these issues. They, however, continued to blame each other for creating problems for the people.
Standing committee chairman Yogender Chandolia repeated what he had said earlier about how the MCD will augment its revenue. “There are 4,816 properties which have already been identified and are liable to pay `5 lakhs in tax per year. We can get `712 crores if these properties are targeted,” he said. However, it is the compliance of such initiatives that has been the problem for the MCD. This is evident from the fact that the civic body has been coming up with one amnesty scheme or the other to shore up its collections under the property tax head, which is the biggest source of revenue. Meanwhile, the hike in toll tax rate from 14 to 28 per cent has been allowed, as it is seen as being less directly linked to the common man.

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