With a mayoral election in the offing, the remaining part of the MCD budget 2023-24 is expected be passed by the municipal House, which is led by a mayor.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had passed the ”schedule of taxes” for the financial year 2023-24 on Wednesday. It was passed by the special officer of the MCD.
However, with a mayoral election likely to be held soon following a Supreme Court order on Friday, the civic body is expected to get its deliberative wing soon.
After a gap of over two months since the civic polls and much political bickering between the ruling and opposition parties, Delhi is set to get its mayor soon with the top court order paving the way for holding the mayoral election after three failed attempts to do so earlier.
Hearing a plea moved by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi, who sought an early conduct of the election, the apex court also ordered the issuance of a notice within 24 hours for convening the first meeting of the MCD to fix the date of election for mayor, deputy mayor and members of the standing committee.
According to the norms, a budget is presented by a municipal commissioner in a special meeting of the standing committee of the civic body, which is then taken up for discussion by chairpersons of different statutory and special committees and zonal ward committees.
Finally, the Leader of the House finalises the budget, which can accept or reject proposals made in a budget presented by a commissioner.
A municipal House is a deliberative wing of the MCD, and it is led by a mayor.
The original MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as Delhi chief minister.
The civic body in Delhi had 272 wards across its three corporations — NDMC, SDMC, and EDMC, which existed from 2012-2022 — before being reunified into a sole MCD which formally came into existence on May 22 last year.
The Centre had appointed IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti as the Special Officer and Commissioner of the unified MCD, with effect from May 22.
The municipal commissioner had presented the MCD budget in December last year which included the revised budget estimate for 2022-23 and budget estimate for 2023-24, an official source had earlier said.
On Wednesday, the MCD, in a statement, had said that as per the provisions of the DMC Act 1957, under the section 109, rates of various municipal taxes, rates and cesses levied, during the year 2023-24 are to be approved by the corporation on or before February 15.
Since the corporation has not come into existence, ”the Special Officer, exercising the power of the corporation has approved the schedule of taxes for the financial year 2023-24”, it had said.
The taxes, rates and cesses leviable in the year 2023-24 will remain the same that are prevalent as on today, the MCD said in a statement.
While the schedule of taxes has been passed by the authorities, the remaining part of the budget exercise is to be carried out before March 31.
As the mayoral election is expected soon, the MCD will then also get its deliberative wing.
”The MCD hopes that by March 31, the deliberative wing led by a mayor will be in place, which will pass the remaining part of the budget,” a senior official had told PTI on Tuesday.
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