EDMC demands tax dues from Delhi govt
New Delhi:
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on Tuesday asked the Delhi government to release Rs 216 crore as part of the civic body’s basic tax assignment (BTA) share.
The municipality, which passed a proposal to this effect in its House meeting on Tuesday, alleged that the government had deducted Rs 216 crore from its BTA share in the name of interest for an old loan.
The civic body representatives said the municipality was already going through an acute financial crisis and deduction of money from its BTA share will only make things worse for the corporation in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Delhi government did not respond to requests for a comment.
A senior official of the EDMC explained that BTA is part of a tax share which the Delhi government collects as electricity tax, advertisement on DTC buses among others on behalf of the municipality.
“As per our BTA share, the Delhi government has to give us Rs 720.75 crore in three quarters, i.e. April-June, July-September and October-December But we got only Rs 144 crore from the government,” the official said.
East Delhi mayor Nirmal Jain said the Delhi government had earlier told the corporation that its revenue collection had dipped due to the pandemic and so they would pay EDMC only 50% of the total BTA share this year.
So, according to the new arrangement, the Delhi government had to pay EDMC Rs 360 crore instead of Rs 720.75 crore as BTA share, Jain said.
“But the government paid us only Rs 144 crore. When we asked, they said Rs 216 crore was deducted towards an old loan taken by the civic body in 2012-13. Such an act is not fair and we demand that the Rs 216 crore should be paid back to the corporation immediately as its financial condition is not good,” Jain said.
Jain said the loan the government was talking about was given to the civic body in 2012-13, amounting to around Rs 1,000 crore. But the government added around Rs 900 crore to it as interest, he said.
Jain said a proposal to demand back the deducted amount was passed in a House meeting. “When the central government has implemented a moratorium scheme, why is the state government deducting funds from our share in the name of interest,” Jain said.