North Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to realise house tax from owners of buildings atop which cell phone towers have been installed "illegally", after preparing a list of such buildings.
The Standing Committee of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) discussed the matter after it was raised through a short notice by committee member Rajesh Bhatia, who alleged that over Rs 100 crore were to be realised as revenue for installation of towers atop buildings in its areas.
In reply to Bhatia's notice, NDMC officials apprised that there was a total of 2,539 cell phone towers installed over buildings in areas under its jurisdiction, out of which 1,284 were "illegal". The revenue realised from the 1,255 legally installed towers stood at Rs 12.56 crore.
Out of the 1,284 "illegally" installed cell phone towers, court cases were pending in 61 cases, the officials told the committee members.
The court case relates to the hike in the one-time charge for installation of towers from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The Cellular Operators of India approached Delhi High Court contesting the hike in one-time charge in 2010.
"Since then, the MCD has not realised any fee for installation of these towers suffering losses over Rs 100 crore," Bhatia said.
Also, no tax was imposed on owners of the buildings where these towers have been installed.
The committee was apprised by the officials that there was no restriction on realising house tax from the buildings in question.
Committee chairman Mohan Bhardwaj directed the corporation commissioner to start the exercise by preparing a list of buildings and their owners to start realising the house tax from them.
