NEW DELHI, March 6: Two new taxes, professional tax and toll tax, have been proposed in the MCD Budget for Plan and Resettlement Colonies which was presented by the Municipal Commissioner V.K. Duggal before the standing committee this morning. However, these proposals have to be ratified by the Standing Committee and the MCD House before they can be implemented.Professional tax is proposed to be levied on all service class people who earn more than Rs 7,500 a month. The commissioner said a token tax would be levied on those who earn between Rs 7,500- Rs 10,000 per month. Those who earn more than Rs 10,000 would be taxed much more, he said. The proposal has been drafted on the lines of the system followed in Ahmedabad and the MCD hopes to generate Rs 20 crore from this tax.Toll tax would be levied on all commercial vehicles which enter Delhi. This is a discretionary tax which the MCD is authorised to levy under section 113 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, he said.The MCD also proposes to levy car parking charges on municipal land, especially at night, on a regular basis. This is expected to generate an additional revenue of Rs 50 crore. Admitting that they had failed to remove encroachments in the industrial areas, Duggal said misuse charges would be levied on factories which use the land in front of the factories.The rates of penalties for various offences under the MCD Act would be increased five times as they have not been increased since 1958. The MCD also plans to find sponsors for municipal parks, schools, dispensaries and community halls for maintenance. Property tax, which has been identified as a major source of income, is expected to generate an addition Rs 160 crore this year.The total expenditure (Non-Plan and Plan) in the budget for 1998-1999 is Rs 1,532.66 crore. As usual, priority has been accorded to conservancy and sanitation for which Rs 366.04 crore (an additional 23.88 per cent ) have been allocated. Primary education is second with Rs 349.11 crore (22.78 per cent), Rs 198.73 crore for developmental work, Rs 129.45 crore for medical and 46.41 crore for public health. The Slum and JJ Department, which has proposed an underlay of Rs 96 crore for implementation of various Plan schemes for the current financial year, would focus on relocation of JJ clusters. Plans are already underfoot to relocate them from the area near AIIMS, the Southern Ridge, Shahbad-Daulatpur and other project land belonging to the DDA, MCD, NDMC and CPWD. Keeping in mind their employment problems it is proposed that relocation of slums should be in the neighbourhood of industrial areas.It has also been proposed that Rs 2 crore be used to provide 17 Basti Vikas Kendras for developmental programmes in JJ clusters.
