NEW DELHI: If the latest proposal of North Delhi Municipal Corporation is implemented, then a swanky new car will make a substantial dent in your pocket. Nearly five years after the erstwhile MCD made a failed bid to double the cost of night parking charges, which is paid by the buyer of a new non-commercial vehicle while registering it, the standing committee of North Corporation on Wednesday gave a green signal to hike the fee.
While only two categories have existed till now, the corporation has added many more hiking the one-time parking charges substantially. Buyers will now have to pay between 2% and 15% of the cost of the vehicle under different categories. Buyers of high-end cars costing above Rs 40 lakh will have to pay a minimum of Rs 6 lakh as night parking charges. Even small cars costing below Rs 4 lakh will have to pay Rs 8,000, four times of what they are paying currently.
The corporation has come forward with this proposal to fight the ongoing financial crunch as well as decongesting public places. If the House of the corporation passes it, then it will go to Delhi government for notification. The other two corporations – East and South – are yet to table this proposal.
“If implemented, this proposal will help construct modern parking facilities from the revenue so that public places can be decongested,” said Mohan Bharadwaj, standing committee chairman of North Corporation.
“There are many families with 4-5 cars. Once this is implemented, there is a possibility that people will restrict themselves to fewer cars which will help in de-congesting public places. Also, this is our attempt to increase our revenue as we are in a severe financial crunch,” said a senior official.
The one-time parking fee is charged by the transport department, which keeps 5% and distributes the rest among the three municipal corporations. South gets 45.44%, North 35.42% and East receives 19.14%. In another development, South Corporation in its standing meeting approved the proposal of exempting e-rickshaws from the one-time parking charge. Even the North Corporation has agreed to the proposal and has exempted autorickshaws, e-rickshaws, two-wheelers and taxis from the fee.
Officials said though a similar proposal was passed earlier, either the Delhi government didn’t approve it or another corporation refused to agree to it. “Unless the proposal is passed by all authorised bodies, there is no guarantee that the new charge will be implemented,” said a senior official from South Corporation.
[“source-indiatimes”]