Aiming to widen its tax net, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has rolled out a new property tax amnesty scheme for unauthorised colonies, unauthorised regularised colonies, among others, the civic body said on Wednesday.
The residents will get a waiver on outstanding property tax dues prior to the financial year 2021-22 upon the payment of the principal amount of property tax dues for the financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Similarly, taxpayers of non-residential properties based in the colonies can avail a waiver on property tax dues prior to 2019-20 upon the payment of the principal amount of dues for 2022-23, 2021-22, 2020-21.
According to a senior MCD official, the scheme, to be effective from September 15, will be active till March 31, 2023.
Another senior official said that post the merger of the three erstwhile municipal corporations, the unified civic body has been looking to widen its tax net by encouraging more residents to pay property taxes in order to improve its crippling finances.
“There is nothing much to lose through this scheme. We are basically asking people in these colonies to pay the basic property tax amount for a few years in order to avail a waiver for dues pending since a decade. Even if 10% of the people end up paying through this scheme, we [MCD] will benefit because we can include more people in our tax net and keep a further track,” said an official.
He added that during previous instances when the civic body was run in the absence of councillors, the civic officials would largely focus on ensuring recovery of taxes from those who were yet to pay.
“Amnesty schemes have been launched even in the recent past, but people would not pay up because they would bank on their ward councillor to help waive off their dues. Currently, the councillors are yet to be elected, and officials are trying their best to stabilise the finances of the MCD before the possible elections take place. It has often been the case that many proposals such as increasing trade licence fee or property tax rates are opposed by councillors and this has led to financial repercussions,” said the MCD official.
