The Times of India             12.07.2013 

Three months on, mayor okays budget

AURANGABAD: After a long wait of more than three months, mayor Kala Oza on Thursday approved the civic budget of Rs 901.17 crore for the cash-strapped Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for 2013-14.

She submitted the budget to officiating municipal commissioner Gokul Maware.

The budget for the current fiscal was pending for approval with the mayor since it was passed by the standing committee in March 2013.

The civic administration had submitted a draft budget of Rs 596 crore to the standing committee on March 19. The panel increased the budget to Rs 700 crore before presenting it at the general body meeting in the end of March. However, Oza had put the budget on hold for more than three months.

For 2012-13, the municipal body had proposed a budget of Rs 786.14 crore but it could not meet the revenue generation target. The AMC was expecting to generate Rs 230 crore through local body tax, but it could only collect only Rs 180 crore. Apart from this, last year's property tax collection Rs 74 crore has also failed to achieve the target of Rs 100 crore. This under recovery led to fiscal deficit of more than 250 crore.