Mayor Mallika Paramasivam presented a Rs. 11.54-crore deficit Budget for the financial year 2013-14 at the special budget meeting of the Erode Corporation Council held on Wednesday.

The civic administration projected Rs. 160.95 crore as revenue against an estimated expenditure of Rs. 172.49 crore.

To compensate the deficit, the civic body proposed to augment the tax revenue, impose water charges on restaurants and lodging houses depending on their type, get more funds from the government and implement cost-cutting measures. The Budget proposed to increase the water charges and the deposit for new connections provided under the Uratchikottai water supply scheme.

The civic body was expecting revenue receipts to the tune Rs. 78.05 crore, while the revenue expenditure was pegged at Rs. 87.25 crore.

The Corporation would receive Rs. 82.89 crore as revenue from the capital account and had planned a capital outlay of Rs. 85.23 crore for various development works.

Out of the total revenue, the Corporation was expecting Rs. 17.03 crore as revenue from property tax in the next fiscal. The civic body has a total of 1,17,378 property tax assessments. The total included 2,939 new assessments included during the current fiscal.

The Corporation would receive about Rs. 3.16 crore as professional tax and Rs. 2.64 crore as rent from its 425 shops in the town.

The Mayor said that the civic administration had planned to build a few more commercial complexes including a modern complex with parking facility in the next fiscal in order to enhance the revenue.

Deputy Mayor K.C. Palanisamy; Corporation Commissioner M. Vijayalakshmi; and senior officials were present.

The Budget did not feature any major scheme for the development of the town except the proposal to allocate funds for the much-awaited 80-ft road.

The Mayor said the civic body would allot Rs. 50 lakh to lay the 80-ft road connecting the Brough road and Chennimalai road. “We will start the work quickly as it will help ease the traffic congestion in the town,” she said.

The 80-ft road is one of the long pending demands of the people in the town. Apart from this, no major infrastructure projects has been announced.

But there is mention of a number of programmes such as the plan to establish a new bus stand and Uratchikottai water supply scheme, which found a place in many previous budgets too. Ms. Mallika Paramasivam said the civic body would prepare a proposal to establish a new bus stand as the existing one could not handle the growing traffic. She, however, did not spell out when the scheme would come up.

On the new Uratchikottai water supply scheme, she said the proposal had already reached advanced stage and it would be finalised shortly.

She further said the civic body would sink 93 new borewells in different parts of the town to ensure adequate supply of water to the residents. Generators would be installed at the pumping stations and treatment plants at a cost of Rs. 68 lakh.

While reading out the status of the ongoing Under Ground Drainage project, she said it would be completed and brought to public use by January 31, 2015. Proposals had been submitted to the government seeking funds to relay the roads that were damaged during the implementation of the project. The civic officials were also preparing a detailed project report to lay underground sewage pipelines in the newly added two town panchayats and five village panchayats, she said.

The Budget proposes to implement energy efficient practices in street lighting and all the offices of civic body at a cost of Rs. 21 crore. It proposes to establish a biogas plant at a cost of Rs. 90 lakh to generate power.

The plant will use the degradable waste generated in the town.