Mayors say govt owes them ‘crores’ in property tax; AAP says ‘figures false’

Mayors of the three municipal corporations Wednesday said they will soon call in the outstanding property tax dues on various Delhi government buildings -- an amount, which they claimed, would run into crores of rupees. This comes a day after the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) issued notices to seven agencies, including the three municipal corporations, over pending water and sewerage dues.

North corporation mayor Jai Prakash, South corporation mayor Anamika Mithilesh and East corporation mayor Nirmal Jain, in a joint press conference on Wednesday, said they will be acting on the outstanding property dues of various Delhi government buildings, including schools, hospitals and offices, among others.

“The properties of the public works department (PWD), the Delhi Secretariat, the Delhi Transco Limited and the Delhi Jal Board have never paid property tax to the corporation, to recover which we will now take action,” said Prakash.

A government spokesperson termed the press briefing “unfortunate” and said the three mayors “have united to put before the media false figures”.

The DJB, on Tuesday, had said the North corporation owes it Rs 2,466 crore in dues, while the South and East corporations have dues of Rs 81 crore and Rs 49 crore, respectively.

“The Delhi government has imposed super commercial rates on water bills at 700 schools, six hospitals, 17 polyclinics and offices of the corporation. The corporation provides free education and health facilities to the poor. This shows how the Delhi government wants to spread chaos in the city,” claimed Prakash.

He added that the DJB has not paid property tax worth Rs 216 crore, while Rs 293 crore is pending towards road cutting work in the North civic body area. “Besides these, the Delhi government has not paid the dues of Rs 955.84 crore for the first and second quarter of the current fiscal to the North corporation. As per the recommendations of Delhi Finance Commission, Rs 968.91 crore is pending, which means that a total Rs 1,924.81 crore has not been released to the corporation as yet,” said Prakash.

East Corporation mayor Jain said in a letter to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, he had requested Kejriwal to pay the pending amount of Rs 175.52 crore to the civic body, which is due on behalf of the DJB.

South corporation mayor Mithilesh said in each of the four zones of the civic body, property tax worth of Rs 2,500 crore is pending on properties of the Delhi government. “This means a total of Rs 10,000 crore is due to us from the Delhi government,” said Mithilesh.

Reacting to the press briefing, a Delhi government spokesperson said,” It is unfortunate that all the three mayors of MCDs have united to give completely false figures to the media. They have made a joke of their offices. The SDMC said Delhi govt owes it Rs 10,000 crores on properties, but their total property tax collection last year was Rs 940 crore from around 12 lakh properties.”

“People of Delhi will not be fooled. If the BJP cannot run the MCD, it should resign immediately. The AAP will run it within the same budget. But the BJP should stop crying like a child daily. Ever since the BJP has been running the MCDs, the people have only gotten corruption and daily excuses,” the spokesperson said.