The North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday did away with one of its main sources of revenue: conversion charges.
At a meeting of the House, the BJP and Congress unanimously passed a resolution to stop collecting conversion charges from traders who have been paying the fee since 2006. The charges are collected from those carrying out commercial activities in mixed land-use areas.
‘Unfair burden’
Leader of the House Vijay Prakash Pandey and Leader of the Opposition Mukesh Goel moved the resolution.
Mr. Pandey said that those registering their commercial properties now will have to pay for the next 10 years, but those who have been paying since 2006-07 will no longer have to pay. “When conversion charges were imposed, the traders were told that they would get basic infrastructure, like parking lots etc. But in the past 10 years, we have been unable to give them the facilities for lack of land. It is unfair to keep imposing this extra burden on them,” said Mr. Pandey.
As per the corporation, there are 50,350 commercial establishments that stand to benefit from the move. The civic body will be sending the resolution to the Delhi Development Authority, which will have to amend the Master Plan of Delhi-2021.
‘Polls not in mind’
Mr. Pandey denied that the move was taken keeping in mind the municipal polls, which are likely to be held in April or May.
