The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Wednesday presented its budget for the financial year 2024-25 with focus on sustainable development goals.
“NDMC has made significant progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), we have our footprints in 15 of the 17 SDGs prescribed for municipal bodies,” NDMC chairman Amit Yadav said while briefing media persons about the budget during a press conference.
He said in line with the outcome of COP 28 Climate Summit, to accelerate climate related efforts on an unprecedented scale, the NDMC aims to adopt innovative market-based mechanisms like Green Bonds and newly introduced Green Credits programme.
Yadav said the NDMC continues with the trend of a surplus budget with net surplus of Rs 240.27 crore projected in FY 2024-25.
He said the NDMC Budget for FY 2024-25 shows a total expenditure of Rs 4,829.36 crore which is more than revised estimated figures of Rs 4,568.21 crore.
The NDMC Budget for FY 2024-25 shows receipts of Rs 5,069.63 crore which is higher than revised estimate of Rs 4,888.93 crore, Yadav said.
He said the NDMC is expecting to collect Property Tax of Rs 1,150 crore in Revised Estimates 2023-24 and Rs 1,150 crore in BE 2024-25.
Yadav said the actual receipts in 2022-23 for License Fee from Municipal Properties stood at Rs. 628.69 crore. The Projections for RE 2023-24 are at Rs 825.11 crore and BE 2024-25 are at Rs 825.11 crore, he said.
“In our budget for 2024-25, total expenditure is more than our RE figures for the current year and the receipts are higher than that of RE leading us with a surplus, a trend maintained by the NDMC for the last number of years. Higher revenue expenditure for RE 2023-24 is on account of increased power purchase prices and payment of salary to the newly appointed 4,400 Palika Sahayaks.
“The increase in receipts is the result of our efforts in collection of property tax and estate dues. We expect the expenditure to further increase in FY 2024-25 on account of disbursement of arrear of salary/pension and other retirement benefits on implementation of 7th CPC in the NDMC,” Yadav announced after the NDMC Budget 2024-25 presentations in its Special Council Meeting presided over by him.
Making mention of tax collections, Yadav said, “To tighten our tax collections, we will implement Geo Tagging for all properties starting next financial year i.e. 2024-25. Geo Tagging will have the features of uploading the photos of the properties of taxpayers through mobile App or NDMC website.”
Talking about the G-20 Summit, Yadav said, “This year was a milestone for the NDMC as we had to prepare New Delhi for hosting the G-20 summit, under the leadership of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The NDMC devoted itself to ensuring the success of this significant event and took numerous initiatives to prepare the city to welcome our guests from across the world. Through the concerted efforts of team NDMC we not only met but exceeded the expectations.”
On issue of pollution, the NDMC chairman said the Council has implemented a range of proactive measures to combat environmental pollution through promoting greenery and expanding the green cover to mitigate the spread of dust, deployed Smog Guns, Mechanical Road Sweepers, to switch to only electric vehicles in a phased manner and have augmented e-charging points to support use of electric vehicles in NDMC area.
“We have launched a ‘One Day One Road’ programme wherein intensive cleaning and washing of trees, roads and pavements is taken up for an identified road every day,” he said.
Yadav said in another initiative of rehabilitation of the sewerage system, the NDMC has requested the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to consider sanctioning projects worth Rs 556 crore under Urban Development Fund (UDF) Scheme. The funding will enable the NDMC to augment the sewerage system in a phased manner within a span of five years.