An ongoing financial crisis was not enough to beat the political pressures of the 2017 elections for the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), which on Thursday officially rolled back a hike in property tax it had cleared.
The civic body, which has been plagued by a severe cash crunch for over a year now, announced that it had reduced the rates of property tax to last year’s rates by giving the residents relief as per provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. The EDMC had implemented the recommendations of the Third Municipal Valuation Committee, which had proposed an increase in property tax for some categories of colonies. On Thursday, the civic body said it had passed orders to officially roll back the implementation, and extend the 15 per cent rebate for property tax payments till August 17.
While officials and some BJP leaders admitted that next year’s elections forced the U-turn, office-bearers of the EDMC said they were trying to “reduce tax burden”.
East Delhi Mayor Satya Sharma said that the Third Municipal Valuation Committee had recommended changing the categories of properties and the use factors of industrial and commercial areas, which increase the property tax many times over. Ms. Sharma said the EDMC had exercised its power under Section 177 of the DMC Act to extend the rebate, thereby neutralising the hike. A total of 65 colonies had seen an indirect increase in property tax as their category was changed from a less taxed one to a higher taxed one.
‘Hike dissuaded taxpayers’
Jeetender Choudhary, chairperson of the EDMC’s Standing Committee, said that the civic body had “always tried to reduce the burden on taxpayers”. He added that the hike in rates had dissuaded taxpayers from paying, with collections dropping by 25 per cent compared to last year.
The BJP leadership of the EDMC had earlier claimed that they had been forced to pass the Third Municipal Valuation Committee’s report under pressure from the Delhi government. Sanitation workers had been on strike as they had not been paid for months when the EDMC decided to implement the hike.
“The Delhi government compelled us to implement the report of the Third Municipal Valuation Committee,” said Leader of the House Sanjay Jain, referring to the condition imposed by the government for releasing funds. Mr. Jain added that though “the EDMC was going through financial crises, yet we don’t want to burden the tax payers by increasing the rates of property tax”.
