Indian Express 19.11.2009

AMC to table its annual budget for 2010-11 in December

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has decided to table and approve the annual budget for 2010-11 by end of December, foreseeing civic polls to be held in October 2010. The municipal commissioner will present the budget by December 10, so that the General Board can approve it by the month-end.

Sources said the budget may have some fancy, cosmetic announcements, but overall, there won’t be much scope for an extravagant budget.

Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam said the AMC had a lot of current projects under JNNURM and the BRTS dedicated corridors, therefore, there will be some or no new projects.

He added that the budget size might not be as big as expected. The municipal commissioner will present the budget by the second week of December for consideration of the Standing Committee and the General Board.

Preparations for this at the zonal level are in full swing with officials working out allocations for wards coming under their jurisdiction.Gautam said 90 per cent of the proposals under the 2008-09 budget were at different stages of execution and by the end of this financial year, all will be completed.

“Work on 60 per cent of the projects is in progress, while work orders have been issued for rest of them. Only 10 per cent of the projects will be carried forward to the next fiscal year,” he said.

Indian Express 17.11.2009

Get ready to shell out more in taxes, service charges in 2010

BMC BUDGET: Civic body struggles for funds but asks departments to keep hikes as low as possible

The coming New Year might begin on a slightly bad note for Mumbaikars as they may have to shell out higher taxes in 2010.

In the times of economic slowdown, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation — the country’s richest municipal corporation with a budget of Rs 19,000 crore— is unsure of its financial condition and is considering a proposal to increase taxes/service charges albeit at the minimum level. It is also borrowing a loan of Rs 2,500 crore to complete civic projects.

The civic administration has asked its prominent departments including water, roads, sewerage, street lights, education to study the feasibility of raising charges for services that have seen no increase in the last two years. “We are awaiting a proposal from these departments and are exploring the possibility to raise the charges. However, we do not wish to burden citizens and the hike will be least,” said a senior official from finance department.

Besides slowdown, BMC has suddenly found itself in the grip of financial crisis after its money spinning department—Octroi— recorded a 10 per cent decrease in its revenue as compared to last year. The Octroi department contributes one-fifth of the annual budget. As per the officials, the department is struggling to achieve its annual target of Rs 4,400 crore this year. Moreover, implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission that has revised employees’ salary has added to the burden.

BMC has also requested the state government to allow borrowing of an internal loan up to Rs 2,500 crore to carry out capital works of road development, water projects, sewerage and other works of basic but important nature.

Civic officials said the loan was reserved in the 2008-09 budget and it is only seeking the permission to actually withdraw the amount. The state government over the last two years had refused the permission. “But this year the situation is different due to economic slowdown and state officials are positive about our demand,” the official said. The loan is being proposed to be taken from the BMC’s own statutory funds, including provident fund. There are 16 types of internal statutory funds including building repairs, depreciation, fidelity guarantee insurance fund, etc.

In a bid to reduce maintenance costs on streetlights, the BMC is contemplating switching on only alternate streetlights. It currently incurs an annual cost of Rs 40 crore on street lighting. An option of a complete switch to solar lights is also being explored.

The finance department has also issued a 16-point circular asking civic employees to cut down expenditure in view of reduced income. Each department has been asked to make a saving of 10 per cent on expenditures. These include timely completion of projects, identifying new sources of income against illegal construction, dumping of debris, illegal hawking and recovery of funds pending with government and public authorities — Rs 703 crore is due from the state government in taxes.

Its departments have also been told to save electricity bills in office and avoid new recruitment, overtime, refurbishing of offices, purchase of new furniture, use of municipal vehicles for travelling, etc.