MADURAI: The city
corporation on Monday presented its annual budget for the year 2013-14
with a deficit of Rs 11.03 crore. Corporation mayor, V V Rajan Chellappa
presented the budget estimating the total income at Rs 694.88 crore
against an expenditure of Rs 705.91 crore with Rs 11.03 crore deficit.

Talking about the budget, Rajan Chellappa said the deficit had been
estimated on scrutiny of total income and expenditure of all funds for
the fiscal. “The net deficit estimated in the previous fiscal was Rs
9.22 crore but it turned surplus at the year end with Rs 7.39 crore.
Likewise, the net deficit for the year 2013-14 will also turn out to be
surplus by augmenting various sources of revenue by getting guidance
from the taxation and finance committee,” he said.

When contacted later, corporation commissioner, R Nanthagopal said
revenue items such as property tax and auction of buildings greatly
contributed to turn the deficit budget of 2012-13 into surplus. In the
same way, the deficit budget for the present fiscal will also turn
surplus since there is scope for many revenue items in the corporation,
he commented.

Even as the budget meeting commenced, DMK
councillors clad in black shirts walked out protesting that they were
not given a prelude copy of the budget. They threw out the budget copies
in the council hall and staged a walkout. Even when they were
protesting, Rajan Chellappa threatened them that they will be barred
from the council if they repeat the walkouts, which received wide
applause from the AIADMK councillors. However, the DMK councillors
boycotted the budget meeting.

CPM councillor, M Chellam during
the budget meeting insisted that the prelude of budget should be shared
among the councillors ahead of the budget session. The budget cannot be
discussed in a constructive manner if the copy is not shared ahead of
the session, she told the council. “No proper discussions are happening
on the corporation budget and I have stressed the demand last year
also,” she later said.

Unlike the regular council sessions
where zone chairmen used to consume much of the council time discussing
various issues, they made their speech shorter this time as they had no
clue about the budget. Even the AIADMK councillors did not analyse the
budget during the meeting. Quite occupied with the ‘AMMA thittam’, the
corporation introduced this year, they were seen praising the civic body
for drafting such scheme.