Leaner administration

Despite the merger, several of the MCD’S core departments continue to be headed by multiple people, in accordance with the arrangements in the three corporations.

One of the key goals behind the merger was to reduce the extra expenses incurred due to the triplication of the departmental and political wings. With the civic body in transition and elections still to be held (polls will have to wait for a comprehensive delimitation exercise), MCD does not currently have a political wing, but the executive wing continues to follow the patterns of the trifurcated bodies.

For instance, the unified MCD still has three engineers-in-chief, three horticulture directors, three municipal health officers and other key portfolios with continued expenses on offices, salaries and other benefits.

MCD has argued that such steps are being taken to avoid largescale litigation and legal complications, even as experts have argued that the accommodative stance has defeated the goals of unification.

Subhash Arya, former mayor and veteran municipal councillor with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who worked with MCD for over 25 years, said the body should cut its expenses and re-allot those funds for development work.

“It has been a month since unification, but the progress has been very slow and not much has been achieved. We don’t need three sets of departmental heads and people working on deputation in the corporation. Chief engineers involved in planning can easily be appointed to administrative posts to manage zones,” he said.

Financial crisis continues

With liabilities of over ₹16,415 crore, including a ₹3,472 crore debt to the Delhi government, financial self-sustainability was always expected to be the unified MCD’S major challenge.

The Union ministry of home affairs argued that the financial difficulties of the three corporations left them unable to pay either salaries or retirement benefits, resulting in frequent strikes that have not only affected civic services, but also impacted hygiene and cleanliness across the city.

The unified MCD was, on June 20, able to release a month’s salary and pension worth ₹547 crore for all its employees, but a large section of staffers (especially those absorbed from the erstwhile North and East civic bodies) continue to face large-scale arrears. MCD has 120,000 employees and 52,000 pensioners.

AP Khan, convener of the Confederation of MCD Employees Unions said unification so far has “only delayed elections and left other promises pending.”

“We have been betrayed. Employees of erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) still have four-month long salary and five-month-long pension delays and north MCD employees are facing a two-month delay. The salary pendency is exactly as it was earlier. Unless the Centre announces a special financial package, unification will not translate to much and its purpose will be defeated,” he said.

An absence of councillors

The unified body will remain under the bureaucratic control of a special officer and commissioner till the delimitation exercise is carried out and elections held.

The Centre named Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ashwani Kumar the special officer of the MCD and Gyanesh Bharti it’s commissioner.

In the absence of a grievance redressal mechanism through elected councillors, the MCD has started a ‘Jan Sunwai campaign’, which allows residents to approach senior civic staff in zonal offices as well as at the MCD headquarters.

The response to this arrangement has been lukewarm, as HT reported on June 7, with few complaints being registered since its launch on June 6.

The corporation received 43 complaints on Day One of the programme. But since then, till June 18, the civic body got just 570 complaints, at an average of around five at each of the 14 demarcated ‘redressal sites’ across the city.

Disparate regulations

The MCD has also not undertaken any major steps to make uniform disparate regulations and varying fee structures between the three previous bodies, except for a recommendation to increase the transfer duty by 1%.

The three corporations had variations in terms of regulations and legal positions on multiple subjects. For instance, the South body charged 1% education cess along with the property tax, but the other two local bodies did not. There are also largescale differences in license fees to operate restaurants as well as for factory licenses. There is also no uniformity in the meat policies of the three corporations.

Each department head has been asked to start work to even out regulations and submit threemonth and six-month action plans. These proposals will need to be cleared by the special officer.

A senior MCD official said ensuring a common administration and allocating office spaces was a “massive exercise” and that policy decisions on making uniform regulations and tax structures will be carried out in another two-three weeks.

“No taxes have been increased so far. In fact, some of the tax rates may drop after the uniform numbers are applied. We have also started the Jan Sunwai campaign and a new anti-corruption cell to address the needs of citizens. Both the platforms are operating well and residents will see the pace of reforms get faster,” an MCD official said.

The official said that though no common financial package has been announced so far, efforts are on to make “the corporation financially sustainable.”

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The United RWAS Joint Action (URJA), an umbrella body for residents’ welfare associations in the city, has pointed out several anomalies in the online property tax collection system while also submitting a memorandum to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), seeking a more inclusive role in the tax collection system.

Atul Goyal, who heads URJA, said around 12 years ago, a scheme was proposed under the Bhagidari project whereby RWAS would help in increasing the property tax collection and, in return, maintenance works such as roads or wall repair, improvement in parks would be carried out by the civic body. However, it was never implemented on ground. “We are not demanding money for RWAS. A portion of tax collection can be used in the same area on the recommendations of RWAS so that residents become a stakeholder,” he said.

Property tax remains one of the main sources of revenue for the MCD. The total property tax collection for 2021-22 was ₹2,032 crore. Data from MCD shows that around 11.50 lakh properties paid the tax during 2021-22. “More than 98% of the tax was deposited online,” an MCD official said, asking not to be named.

Goyal said RWAS have also pointed out several anomalies in the existing tax portal. “The old data on property tax filing is not available in many cases as the old and new tax collection portals are not in sync. For instance, the UPIC (unique property identification code) for old online registered properties should be generated by default and there should be no duplication,” he said.

In its submission to MCD, URJA has raised eight points of concern regarding the portal. The report states that old receipts paid by cheque or at tax camps are not available on the portal. “In the current receipts, the downloaded font size is small and MCD should allow a font size of 12 since in any case you are printing it on an A4 size paper,” Goyal said.

“While making the payment, the option boxes are not highlighted and sometimes people miss and skip a box and options for online and offline payments should be shown clearly,” he said. Similarly, for the tax payers who want to make payments by cheque, the option does not appear to generate the receipt on the main page. The RWA body has also said during the past two years of the pandemic, most of the payments were made under issuance of a hand receipt (2020-21 & 2021-22), which are not visible on the portal.

The RWA federation has also proposed to integrate the system with power distribution companies for easy identification of properties and consumers and also requested a digital issuance of “no dues certificate” against property tax.

Responding to the memorandum, an MCD spokesperson said that the suggestions are valuable and the corporation will certainly examine each of them and try to incorporate them

Last week, MCD had decided to open help desks and tax collection counters in all its zonal property tax offices. “The property tax help desks and tax collection counters will work from 8am to 8pm every day including, Saturday and Sunday, till June 30. This step has been taken by MCD for the convenience of property tax payers and to help them avoid a last minute rush. It is to be noted that MCD gives a rebate of 15% on property tax for the current fiscal if it is deposited on or before June 30,” the spokesperson said.

While making the payment, the option boxes are not highlighted and sometimes people skip a box. ATUL GOYAL, head, United RWAS Joint Action