The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has collected over Rs 1,110 crore as property tax in the April to June quarter, a surge of over 40 per cent from the same period the previous year, Mayor Shelly Oberoi said on Monday.

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However, the BJP said that the higher tax collection was due to certain revisions to house tax rebate announced earlier this year.

Addressing a press conference, Oberoi slammed the previous BJP's rule of the civic body for "looting" taxpayers' money and said that the MCD was making losses earlier. She also said the number of taxpayers has also increased to around 7.17 lakh.

"A property tax of Rs 1,113 crore has been collected by the MCD," Oberoi said, adding that this was made possible due to the good governance of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Oberoi also said the tax collection was higher than that of 2021 and 2022. In 2021-22, Rs 695 crore was collected as property tax, while Rs 540 crore was collected in 2020-21.

"Earlier under the BJP, tax payer's money was being looted. People would pay taxes yet the MCD would accumulate losses. Roads were broken, parks were broken, and drains were broken under the BJP. Not even a single per cent of the tax benefited the public," Oberoi said. Oberoi said now the tax collected will be used for the welfare of the people. "Roads will be constructed. Parks will be repaired. Drains will be prepared," she added.

Meanwhile, an MCD official said that despite the AAP's claims on its rule of the municipal corporation, the salary of group A and B MCD officers have not been disbursed for the last two months. "Despite the claims that AAP-led MCD has made, the salary of only sanitation workers has been disbursed. Doctors, group A and B officers have not been paid for the last two months," the official said.

AAP responded saying they will release the salaries soon. "At MCD, first the salary of sanitation workers are given. Then teachers are paid. Then group A and B (officers) are paid. We will release the salaries soon," senior AAP councillor Mukesh Goyal told PTI.

Lauding the higher tax collection, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a tweet said that people are voluntarily paying their taxes due to the presence of an honest government in Delhi. "Earlier, people did not pay taxes during BJP's rule. They thought that the tax they paid would be stolen," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

"Now, after the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government, people themselves have come forward and started paying taxes. They have faith that since there is an honest government now, every penny will be spent on the development of the people," he said.

Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Raja Iqbal Singh, however, said that the surge in the property tax is due to certain revisions made to the property tax collection by the AAP-led MCD earlier this year.

"They have reduced the house tax rebate. We used to give 15 per cent rebate. But they reduced it to 10 per cent. They have also increased the education cess by one per cent. We did not raise the tax for 15 years," Singh said. The changes in the property tax suggested by the fifth Municipal Valuation Committee (MVC-V) were introduced and implemented in April.

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