The Hindu 18.02.2014
BBMP budget proposes very few infrastructure projects
Citizens were counting on the Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget to give a major thrust to infrastructure
development. However, the BBMP’s 2014–15 budget, with an outlay of Rs.
7,773.08 crore, lists very few infrastructure projects.
A
flyover between Sirsi Circle and BHEL Circle, steel bridges from
Minerva Circle to Hudson Circle and Race Course Road to the railway
underbridge in Seshadripuram, and an elevated corridor between Ejipura
and Kendriya Sadan are among the few mentioned.
The outlay too is lesser than last year’s Rs. 8,519 crore.
Priorities
The
budget, which was presented on time unlike in previous years, was
placed before the BBMP council on Monday by chairperson of the Standing
Committee for Taxation and Finance M.S. Shivaprasad. Mayor B.S.
Sathyanarayana hailed it as a “realistic budget”.
Dr.
Shivaprasad said the surplus budget was “development oriented and
practical”, and had prioritised “good roads, green environs, clean
drinking water, scientific solid waste disposal, smooth traffic flow,
healthy society and good infrastructure”.
The numbers
During
the next fiscal, the BBMP’s estimated revenue, as per the budget, is
Rs. 7,779.51 crore. Of this, Rs. 2,661 crore is tax revenue, Rs. 2,260
crore is non-tax revenue, Rs. 1,833.27 crore is government grants and
Rs. 976.85 crore is from other incomes.
While the
budget takes into account the government grants, including Rs. 1,527
crore announced in the State budget recently, the civic body has urged
the government to provide total grants of Rs. 5,000 crore.
Hoping
to increase property tax collections, the BBMP has proposed to set up a
high-value properties tax recovery cell. The target for the 2014–15
fiscal is Rs. 2,500 crore.
The civic body will also
levy betterment charges on converted stray sites and bulk lands and
hopes to collect Rs. 400 crore from this source. Once again, revenue
collection amounting to Rs. 750 crore by implementing the optic fibre
cable police has been featured in the budget.
Other revenue sources include advertisement tax (Rs. 182 crore) and trade licences (Rs. 60 crore).
BBMP Act
The budget also makes a mention of the need for a BBMP Act that would go a long way towards providing good administration.