NDMC pegged its budget estimates at Rs 5,070 crore.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) announced its yearly budget for 2024-25 in its Council Meeting on Wednesday, 27 December. “All properties under its jurisdiction will be geo-tagged in the 2024-25 financial year for ease in collecting property tax,” said the council in its budget session.
Amit Yadav, Chairman of NDMC, presided over the special budget session for the financial year 2024-25. “In our budget for 2024-25, the total expenditure is more than our revised estimate figures for the current year. The receipts are also higher than that of the revised estimate, leading us to a surplus, a trend maintained by NDMC for the last number of years,” Amit Yadav said in his budget speech, attributing the increase in expenditure to a rise in purchase power prices and the payment of salaries and appointments for 4,400 new employees. Yadav said the increase in receipts was on account of the collection of property tax and estate dues.
NDMC made its budget estimates for 2024-25 pegged at Rs 5,070 crore, the first time that the estimate has crossed the Rs 5,000 crore mark. The council has also recorded a surplus of over Rs 300 crores in the financial year 2022-23.
NDMC has also announced that all the properties in its jurisdiction will be geo-tagged in the financial year 2024-25, just like MCD, which will ease collecting property taxes. The exercise will mandate uploading the photographs of properties, which users can also do by themselves through a mobile app or through the NDMC website.
During the budget speech, the NDMC Chairman announced the creation of an “innovation fund,” in which money will be put to test new innovations and technology.
“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 2km length,” said Yadav.
The Chairman further said that NDMC has made significant progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
“We have our footprints in 15 of the 17 SDGs prescribed for municipal bodies. In line with the outcome of the COP 28 Climate Summit, to accelerate climate-related efforts on an unprecedented scale, NDMC aims to adopt innovative market-based mechanisms like green bonds and the newly introduced Green Credits programme,” added Yadav.
NDMC also announced that it had launched the “One Day, One Road” programme, under which one road under NDMC’s jurisdiction will be taken up for intensive cleaning and washing every day. “This will involve cleaning the trees and pavements too. We believe each NDMC road will be completed in a three-month cycle, after which we will be able to target the first road again,” Yadav said.
The NDMC also unveiled plans for theme-based recreational spaces and parks rooted in Vedic culture, Navgrahas, and Naksgatras concepts. The council also aims to set up exclusive restrooms for the third gender at 79 locations, augmenting the existing 13 facilities.