AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad
Municipal Corporation (AMC) has initiated several cost cutting measures
to mitigate the burden of heavy fiscal deficit. Municipal commissioner
Harshdeep Kamble recently instructed officials to bring down expenditure
on telephone bills, local conveyance and advertising.

Kamble
emphasised on the need to adopt means to cut down on the civic body’s
expenditure. During a recent meeting, he directed the department heads
to prepare a detailed report of expenses and sought suggestions to
reduce those.

Deputy engineer Devidas Pandit on Monday said he
would submit a detailed report of expenses on transportation. He said
besides city mayor, the municipal body has provided twenty six vehicles
to its senior officers for local conveyance.

As per the state government guidelines, the officers get petrol and diesel quota. For petrol cars, AMC
pays Rs 5,000 to the officers every month while for diesel cars it
offers 125 litre fuel. Officers pay for all the expenses beyond the
fixed limit.

Pandit said some senior officers had been granted
relaxation from the quota. The civic body also has two hundred vehicles
like trucks, mini-trucks, hook loaders, skip loaders, auto rickshaws for
solid waste management and other civic facilities.

A senior
officer in public relation department said the civic body was planning
changes in its advertising budget to cut down expenditure. “We have
brought down the number of newspapers to give advertisements. Now, the
corporation will give ads only in three newspapers against the earlier
pattern of six,” he said.

Officer in accounts department said
the corporation plans to reduce monthly payment for mobile phones. The
civic body pays fixed charges for the mobile phone to its officers. The
civic body reimburses Rs 240 every month per staff towards the mobile
bill.

Apart from this, AMC is also gearing to mop up more taxes
in the current financial year. The civic body has formed three special
teams for collection of property tax, which will start recovery from May
2013. Previously, the tax collection department used to swing into
action in the last financial quarter. Further, to improve revenue
generation through water charges and property tax from slum dwellers,
the corporation is planning door to door visits.