Govt, MCD slug it out over funds

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 22: The Congress government in Delhi today strongly denied reports that it was refusing funds to the BJP-dominated Municipal Corporation of Delhi MCD and described these as 8220;misunderstandings created by vested interests.8221;

The government then went on to remind the MCD about its arrears. Delhi Finance Minister Mahinder Singh Saathi pointed out that the Delhi government had released till date Rs 573.32 crore. 8220;No request of the MCD is pending with the Planning and Finance Department,8221; he stressed. He also emphasised that the MCD has 8220;failed to fulfill the committment it gave to the Delhi Finance Corporation DFC to raise additional resources of Rs 311 crore in the past three years.8221; The DFC has to decide how much assistance local bodies will get in the form of assigned taxes and grants-in-aid. In its action-taken report, the DFC recommended that the Delhi government was under obligation to release 9.5 per cent of the total tax revenue to local bodies.

The DFC also recommended a mechanism for recovery of loans and interest from the MCD, and the government had agreed to this.

According to this formula, said Saathi, the total tax assignment including the arrears for 1996-97 and 1997-98 comes to Rs 294.04 crore for which the government is making provisions in the budget.

Saathi points out that the government has been lenient to the MCD because it has not recovered the Rs 110 crore advanced to the corporation in the current financial year. 8220;We deducted only Rs 33.55 crore out of Rs 100.65 crore given to the MCD for mechanisation of sanitation,8221; Saathi said.

8220;The Delhi government has given relief worth Rs 240 crore to the MCD. The government has only recovered Rs 232 crore from MCD as against Rs 472 crore due from them,8221; he said.