New Delhi: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) presented its revised budget estimates for 2020-21 on Monday. The SDMC also said that a fund-crunch is to be expected due to a decrease in revenue and the Delhi government "withholding funds worth Rs 13,000 crore owed to the three MCD's". Notably, Mayors of all three MCD's sat in protest outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence as the budget was being presented in a special meeting of the Standing Committee.
SDMC's internal revenue for 2020-21 as per the budget estimate is Rs 4,292.78 crore, while the revised estimate is Rs 3,574.33 crore. The actual revenue between April 1 to October 1 2020 was Rs 1,108.48 crore. The civic body's estimated external revenue for 2020-21 is Rs 483.55 crore, while the revised figure is Rs 225.23 crore. Between April 1 to October 1 this year, the actual external revenue reported was Rs 41.24 crore.
In order to increase its revenue and widen its tax-net, the SDMC has a proposal to roll out an amnesty scheme for recently regularised unauthorised colonies, under which property owners will get a property tax waiver from 2004-05 onwards, if they pay the tax for the last three fiscal years. It also did away with the additional rebates of 20 per cent and 10 per cent given to co-operative groups on payment of one-time property tax and on DDA/CGHS flats
respectively.