In order to increase the revenue of municipal corporation (MC) and improve coordination between officials of the property tax and town planning wings, civic officials will table two resolutions in the MC general house meeting.
According to the first resolution, new numbers to properties should only be assigned when its building plan has been approved.
As per the second, owners of buildings constructed after the year 1995 should pay external development charges (EDC) and those who come to take the TS -1 (no dues) certificate from the civic body should first be asked to clear dues in the building branch.
However, this resolution is not going down well with the councillors, who said they would oppose it in the house meeting.
Sources said that councillors from opposition parties are preparing to oppose the move and they could meet mayor Balkar Sandhu on Monday, asking him to cancel the agenda.
BJP councillor Manju Aggarwal said, “It is not sufficient to fix 1995 for recovering EDC charges. This is not right because the person concerned has paid property tax and other development taxes for many years.
“Above all, people might not have approved building plans, especially in the core area where buildings are very old and were sold and purchased several times.” She said this should be done for buildings constructed after 2012 and they would raise this demand during the house meeting.
Even senior deputy mayor Shyam Sunder Malhotra said he was not in favour of the move. “We will ask the mayor to review it once and implement things in a way that people do not face harassment,” he said.
A few councillors support this decision on the grounds that it would help the MC earn revenue.
Congress councillor Gurpreet Gopi said, “I think it should be implemented as it would not only generate more revenue for the civic body and enhance development but also help overcome lack of coordination among officials.”
Mayor Balkar Sandhu adopted a wait and watch approach. “Let the meeting take place next week. We will implement whatever the members decide,” he said.
