In a bid to strengthen its financial position, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation is planning to impose property taxes on embassies that are located in areas.

According to sources in the South Corporation, there are around 30 embassies under the jurisdiction of the civic body, a majority of which are in Vasant Vihar. The embassies have also rented or taken properties on lease in the city to be used as passport offices. Such offices/ rented properties will also be taxed, the sources added.

"Several countries charge property tax on Indian embassies located there but the civic agencies of Delhi do not. It is time they start imposing taxes since these embassies pay lakhs of rupees in rent to the property owners and can easily afford to pay property taxes in lieu of all the civic services provided to them," said a source.

A proposal in this regard will come for discussion as a nine member co-ordination committee of the three civic agencies has been formed to look into the implementation of the suggestions of the third Municipal Evaluation Committee (MVC) report.

The committee members will study the property tax structure on embassies in other countries and accordingly a tax structure will be framed. According to the initial proposal, these embassies will have to pay property tax in the factor of 10, one of the highest.

Most of these embassies are located at Vasant Vihar, Greater Kailash, Safdarjung Development Area, Maharani Bagh, Sunder Nagar and other posh localities of South Delhi.