NDMC to geo-tag all properties for easy tax collection

NEW DELHI: The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has announced that all properties within its jurisdiction will be geo-tagged in the 2024-25 financial years.

This move will aid in the easy collection of property tax. The exercise will require uploading photographs of properties which can be done through a mobile app or the NDMC website. This announcement was part of a host of proposals made by the NDMC in its budget estimates for 2024-25, which are pegged at Rs 5.70 crore, marking the first time the estimate has crossed the Rs 5,000 crore mark. The council registered a surplus of over Rs 300 crores in the financial year 2022-23.

According to Amit Yadav, Chairman of the NDMC, the increase in expenditure can be attributed to a rise in purchase power prices, payment of salaries, and the appointments of 4,400 new employees.

Yadav stated during his budget speech that the NDMC budget has made progress on 15 out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prescribed for municipal bodies worldwide by the United Nations in 2015.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has made geo-tagging of all properties mandatory to avail property tax exemption.

During his budget speech, Yadav announced the creation of an “Innovation Fund” to test innovations and technology. He said, “NDMC has created an innovation fund, to facilitate new and pioneering efforts and the infusion of new technology. Now, the modalities for it have been laid down by the constitution of a panel to consider such projects.”

The first such project is a bio-remediation-based innovative hybrid technology, which has been taken up to clean a partial open portion of Kushak nallah from 11 Murti, Sardar Patel Marg to Kemal Ataturk Marg across a 2 km length.”