The present financial crisis, meanwhile, has once again led to MCD employees issuing an ultimatum that they will stage a strike from January 7 at the L-G house if salaries are not paid. East Delhi residents may have to shell out more out of their pockets as the East MCD has proposed three new taxes — professional tax for those earning over Rs 5 lakh a year, education cess and betterment tax — in the proposed budget for 2021-2022.
The proposal states that professional tax of Rs 100 per month would be charged for those earning over Rs 5 lakh a year and Rs 200 per month for those earning over Rs 10 lakh annually. The education cess would be 5% of property tax and betterment tax would be 15% of property tax.
The corporation had estimated that it would earn Rs 50 crore in additional revenue if these projects were passed.
Senior officials in civic bodies said while it would be difficult to pass all the proposals as they require the clearance of the political wing, they expect some of these taxes to be executed as the corporation has not increased taxes for years and is facing “severe” fund crunch.
A senior official of the EDMC said, “We are expecting that this time some of these proposals would be passed, especially professional tax, as South MCDs leaders are also pushing for a similar tax in their area.”
