MCDs step up work towards improved property tax collection

New Delhi: Faced with fund crunch, the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi have stepped up work on the ambitious Unique Property Identification Code (UPIC) project that aims to streamline the database of properties under their jurisdiction and enforce an improved collection of tax in the city.

The three civic bodies - NDMC, EDMC and SDMC - started working on the scheme in December last year to keep a check on property tax defaulters in the national capital.

Chairman Standing Committee of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Mohan Bhardwaj said that UPIC scheme has been introduced to ascertain the actual number of properties in NDMC jurisdiction.

"The survey has been completed in seven wards, including Baljeet Nagar, Dev Nagar, Inderlok, Kohat Enclave, Mukherjee Nagar, Ashok Vihar and Shakurpur," he said.

It has been found that 45,836 properties are not included in the property tax net. Going by this average after full implementation of UPIC, there is likely to be a rise of 140 percent in the number of properties, Bhardwaj said.

The survey has been taken up in another seven wards and would be extended to each and every ward of the corporation, Bhardwaj added.

"The process of providing UPIC cards having details of the property and tax on it is underway and we expect to provide these cards in our jurisdiction by the end of the year," Standing Committee chairman of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Radhe Shyam Sharma said.

The civic body has also expanded its property tax net by using BSES data on power consumers for screening commercial properties, he said.

The list of properties have been added with 38,000 more properties, giving a jump of about Rs 80 crore in the property tax this year.

By October 15 last year, the property tax revenue was nearly Rs 403 crore which is Rs 485 crore in the corresponding period this year, he said.

"We have also started the process of correcting sequences of properties numbers giving them a new number besides the old numbers. Both these numbers will be provided in the UPIC cards that will be provided to property owners in all the 104 wards of the SDMC," he said.

The UPIC scheme was first introduced in the unified MCD in 2010, although its implementation was later delayed due to various reasons. It aimed at preparing a complete database on properties to boost realization of property tax by increasing number of tax payers.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has planned a different modus operandi of UPIC scheme.

The civic body will provide passbooks to property owners which will have all the details and account of the property and tax on it, a senior municipal corporation officer said, adding that the process of passbook distribution will start soon.