South Delhi Civic Body Proposes Property Tax Hike

In a move to generate greater revenues, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on December 4 has proposed a hike in property tax across eight categories of residential colonies in its Budget estimates for 2019-20. 

“We plan to increase the earnings of the corporation through various avenues, and one of them is hiking of property tax, which we have proposed in the budget. There is also a provision to levy a professional tax for the year 2019-20, from which an income of Rs 30 crore is expected for that year,” said SDMC Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel.

According to the proposed estimated, the residential properties will be taxed depending upon the colony category they fall into – A and B category are likely to be taxed 14 per cent as against the prevailing 12 per cent. The C, D and E category properties would have to pay tax at the rate of 12 per cent, instead of the present 11 per cent while F, G and H categories would be levied eight per cent tax as against prevailing seven per cent.

For the special non-commercial and other non-residential properties, the corporation has proposed a tax of 15 per cent.  

On the other hand, to encourage the property owners to pay their tax on time, the earlybirds could now save upto 10 per cent, a rebate which at present is 15 per cent. Those in co-operative group societies who paid a one-time tax were entitled to a 20 per cent rebate which is proposed to be completely slashed. 

Additionally, about 1.83 lakh new properties have been identified and soon would be brought into the tax net. A door-to-door survey of over 6.44 lakh properties that was conducted between September 2017 until May this year helped identify these properties.

The corporation also plans to redevelop the Meherchand Market, a plan which has been sent to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).