MCD passes schedule of taxes in civic budget 2023-24, says official

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi passed the "schedule of taxes" in the civic budget 2023-24 on Wednesday, a senior official said.

The unprecedented move comes as Delhi is still to get a mayor, despite three attempts to hold the mayoral election.

"The Corporation passed the schedule of taxes (in civic budget 2023-24) today," the official said.

It was passed by the special officer of the MCD.

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.

The municipal commissioner had presented the MCD budget in December which included the revised budget estimate for 2022-23 and budget estimate for 2023-24, an official source had said.

"The Corporation will pass the schedule of taxes (in civic budget 2023-24) tomorrow (Wednesday). The remaining part of the budget exercise will be carried out before March 31," a senior official had told PTI on Tuesday.

"The MCD hopes that by that time the deliberative wing led by a mayor will be in place, which will pass the remaining part of the budget," he had said.

According to the statutory requirement, the schedule of taxes in a municipal budget has to be passed by February 15, he said.

On February 9, sources had said that the civic budget 2023-24 was likely to be passed by the special officer of the MCD as the mayoral election is still pending and less than a week was left to complete the budget exercise.

The municipal House in Delhi, on February 6, had failed to elect a mayor for the third time in a row in a month, following ruckus over the decision to allow aldermen to vote in the mayoral poll, even as the AAP alleged a planned conspiracy by the BJP to stall the process.

An agitated AAP, which is seeking a court-monitored election, had moved the Supreme Court on February 7 over the issue.

The Supreme Court on February 8 had sought responses of the office of the lieutenant governor, pro tem presiding officer of the MCD Satya Sharma, and others on a plea filed by AAP's mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi.

The office of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor on Monday told the Supreme Court that it would postpone the February 16 mayoral election to a date after February 17.