Civic body to lose Rs 100 crore revenue due to move

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Farhad Suri on Tuesday claimed that due to demonetisation, the civic body would lose revenue over Rs 100 crore in the current financial year. He said so while initiating the budget discussion in the standing committee of the SDMC.

Mr Suri added that he and his party, the Congress, oppose any kind of increase or extra burden on Delhiites, who are already facing difficulties because of poor economic policies of the state and the Central government, as well as demonetisation.

Pointing out that demonetisation will cause revenue loss of around Rs 150 crore, Mr Suri claimed that the toll tax collection would decline as it was made free from November 11 to December 2.

“I predict there will be a sharp decline in revenue collection on account of demonetisation, especially in transfer fee, as lesser number of properties are being registered. Also lesser revenue will accrue by way of one-time car parking charges as car sale has decreased by 25 per cent,” said Mr Suri, adding that there will also be a shortfall in the global share from the Delhi government as it has already stated that VAT and other revenue collections have fallen due to demonetisation.

Mr Suri further pointed out that the claim made by the commissioner about income or expenditure under different heads are manipulated to please the ruling party. “Instead of pleasing the gallery, the commissioner has presented a realistic budget estimate,” added Mr Suri.

He suggested that dark spots pointed out by NGO SafetiPin need to be identified and lights installed at the earliest. He also talked about exploring the possibility of public-private partnership for installing solar panels on its building if there is shortage of funds.

He further suggested that in the absence of land being made available for sanitary landfill sites, the SDMC must find ways and means of prolonging the life of the present sites.

“The waste available at sanitary landfill sites can be used for road construction by the National Highway Authority. When a country like Sweden can import garbage for running their waste to energy plants, can we not explore the possibility of exporting our waste to Sweden? Of course, for this purpose, segregation of MSW is a must,” he said.