35% of Delhi’s properties pay property taxes: Simplify tax forms, ensure Aadhar linkage to increase the property tax collection, LG instructs MCD

New Delhi: Delhi’s municipal authorities must simplify all citizen-centric services like paying property tax, and make them available online by July 31, lieutenant governor V K Saxena has instructed after a review of the IT initiatives of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)

New Delhi:

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Delhi’s municipal authorities must simplify all citizen-centric services like paying property tax, and make them available online by July 31, lieutenant governor V K Saxena has instructed after a review of the IT initiatives of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

The property tax filing system should be simplified and linked with Aadhaar numbers to increase collection, Saxena directed, while also ordering the linking of the municipality’s birth and death registration database with other government welfare schemes to reduce leakage.

All citizen-centric services like registration of births and death, property tax, mutation of properties, approval of building plans, among others, should be digitised on a common and simple accessible platform by the end of next month, Saxena said.

Most of the services mentioned by the lieutenant governor are already online and the IT department is currently working to merge the different portals of the erstwhile east, south and north municipalities. A unified MCD 311 mobile application for citizens has been launched and a common website that leads to three landing pages based on the location of the citizens has been made operational on May 23 after the unification of the civic bodies.

Delhi registers around 3-3.5 lakh births every year, while the number of annual death registration is around 1.4 lakh, officials said. The database on registrations of births and deaths should be linked to the government departments that provide services like subsidised food, pensions, maternity benefits and other welfare schemes, so that records can be automatically updated, Saxena said.

“This will ensure plugging leakages and put a stop to instances of ghost beneficiaries,” he said.

The aim of the civic body should be to ensure services with minimum human interaction, Saxena said. “The MCD should ensure timely delivery, and also cut red tape to curtail inefficiency and corruption at all levels,” he said.

While amending the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act in Parliament in April, the central government had said one of the functions of the municipality would to be “securing and establishment of e-governance system for citizens’ services on an anytime-anywhere basis for better, speedy, accountable and transparent administration”.

Officials should work to achieve full automation in property tax filing, collection, assessment and recovery, Saxena said. “All properties within the city limits, commercial as well as residential, should be brought under the tax net so that MCD’s incomes increase and it is able to provide better services,” he said.

Commercial establishments and people in as much as 65% of the geographical area of Delhi do not pay any property tax, he observed. “It is an unfortunate and unfair situation,” he said.

“Since the entire city, and not only the 35% residents of 11 lakh houses living in authorized and regularized colonies were availing of the amenities and services offered by the municipal corporation, it would only be fair and justified that all pay property tax at differential rates, as per their respective self-assessed financial status,” Saxena said. “For this purpose, the MCD needs to simplify the forms for property tax registration and ensure its Aadhaar linkage.”

For the financially stressed MCD, property tax remains one of the main sources of revenue. The total property tax collection for 2021-22 was ₹2,032 crore, official data show. Around 11.5 lakh properties paid tax during 2021-22, out of which 98% was deposited online.

Saxena also asked officials to take the residents’ welfare associations on board and address their concerns. “Partnership with the people will not only facilitate honest self-assessment on part of the assesses, but also increase tax collection, and ensure better services to the people,” he said.