No new infra projects in Delhi civic body budget, focus on ‘self-reliance’

The opposition BJP, however, termed the ₹16,683 crore budget “unconstitutional” and “anti-people”.

A quarter of the municipal budget worth ₹16,683 crore for the financial year 2024-25 has been allocated to the sanitation sector, according to the proposals presented by Delhi municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti on Saturday before a special meeting of the House of councillors. No new large-scale infrastructure was announced by the commissioner and the budget emphasised completion of the ongoing projects and consolidation of its financial health.

At 25.14%, sanitation took the largest chunk of the budget allocation. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Bharti said: “After the unification of the Delhi municipal corporation last year, our emphasis is on consolidating and strengthening it. We want it to become self-reliant. Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is increasing its revenue collection and we have collected the highest ever property tax in MCD’s history with significant jumps in collections of other departments.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the budget “unconstitutional” and “anti-people”.

At 25.14%, sanitation took the largest chunk of the budget allocation followed by the general administration and salary expenses at 20.84%, the education sector at 18.64%, public health at 12.36% and 4.17% on repayment of the civic body’s loans.

MCD budget for FY 2024-25

Bharti has proposed to keep the existing property tax structure unchanged but the budget document reiterated the intent to impose a “professional tax” on trades/professions subject to approval from the city government. To be sure, similar proposals to impose new taxes in the past years have not been cleared by the elected wing.

Against the expenses of ₹16,683 crore, the commissioner has indicated an earning of ₹15,686.99 crore with an opening account standing at ₹1,004 crore. Among its income sources, MCD plans to get ₹2,906.7 crore as a share of taxes from the Delhi government, ₹4,300 crore as property taxes, ₹3,000 crore on property transfer duty, ₹1,110 crore from electricity tax with smaller contributions from other revenue streams such as parking fees, advertisements, etc.

The property tax remains unchanged at 12% for A and B category colonies, 11% for C, D, and E colonies and 7% for F and H categories.

An MCD official said that the imposition of professional tax on traders and working professionals has been reiterated like last year. “Professional tax between ₹1,200 to ₹2500 per year has been proposed on working professionals like businessmen, accountants, advocates, etc., earning more than ₹5 lakh per month. If the tax gets approval from the city government, professionals earning between ₹5-10 lakh will pay ₹1200/year and the ones earning more than ₹10 lakh will pay ₹2400 per year. Traders with an annual turnover of more than ₹10 lakh will be expected to pay ₹2500/year. We also sent a similar proposal last year and it is pending with the government,” the official added.

MCD has put up a token amount of ₹10 lakh as earnings from this tax next year indicating low chances of approval from the government.

New projects

Bharti announced that MCD will add several new schools, and healthcare units, besides undertaking digitisation of several municipal services. Under the engineering sectors, MCD will complete the development of 20 new primary schools at Civil Lines, Punjabi Bagh and Rohini, and eight multilevel parking lots in areas like Greater Kailash 1, Fatehpuri and Pitampura.

Under the education sector, the commissioner has announced that 25 “adarsh model schools” will be set up this year with smart interactive panel classes. The civic body is also computerising its schools along with hiring 420 nursery helpers for toddlers.

The horticulture sector has been allocated 3.52% for the mechanisation of maintenance works, operation of four tree ambulances and completion of three waste-to-art theme parks.

“We are undertaking the redevelopment of 153 parks which are more than one acre in area and this will be completed by March 2024,” the commissioner said.

For the health sector, Bharti has proposed to set up the corporation’s first lactation management unit or a milk bank at SDN hospital in East Delhi along with starting 60 diagnostic laboratories in the primary health centres on a public-private partnership basis. The budget said that the building infrastructure of the healthcare units is being repaired under a ₹60 crore project. “We also plan to start CT scan, dialysis and pediatric cardiology specialty centers with private participation,” it said.

The civic body intends to digitise its challan process through the introduction of “M-challans” while also making the 3 million land and estate record documents digital, which would be available online by March 2024. The manual challans and notice process will be made digital through the M-challans. Bharti said a new module is being developed in the MCD-311 mobile app under which a smart city 311 module is being added for the officers which will be used to issue the M-challans.

The funeral infrastructure will also be upgraded in the next year with proposals related to revamping 30 sites, developing CNG furnaces at three sites — Hastsal, Panchkuian Road and Seemapuri — along with computerisation of receipt and birth/death registration systems at all MCD funeral centers. “We will completely redevelop the larger centers at Sarai Kale Khan and Rohini Sector 26,” the commissioner added.

Responding to the budget, mayor Shelly Oberoi said that though the budget of the officers was presented, the real budget of “the people of Delhi” will come in the first week of February.

“AAP councillors will continuously communicate with citizens and meet resident welfare associations and market associations. Based on the suggestions of the citizens, the public budget will be prepared, which will be presented in the House by Mukesh Goyal. People’s dialogue in Delhi will start from next week. This dialogue process will continue till the end of January 2024,” she added. She said that the budget cannot be prepared behind closed doors to solve the problems of the people of Delhi.

Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition from BJP Raja Iqbal Singh said the budget was against people’s interests.

“Due to the Aam Aadmi Party’s failure to form permanent committees, ward committees, and other crucial committees, the commissioner had to present the budget in the municipal house, which is entirely unconstitutional. The budget proposes an increase in professional taxes and 80% of the budget will be spent solely on employee salaries, while the remaining 20% will be allocated for the development of civic services. Rebates on taxes have been brought down as well” said Singh.