Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy will be creating history of sorts by presenting the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget on July 20, the second in his tenure, months after his term officially ended. In such a situation, normally the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance would present the budget.

A notification issued by the Urban Development under-secretary on Tuesday stated that BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana had written to them on the budget presentation. In his letter, the Commissioner had stated that the mayor’s election was not held and standing committees not constituted. This had delayed the presentation of the budget for 2013-14. Now that three months of the present financial year had passed, the BBMP had been maintaining salaries, pensions and solid waste management expenditure through 30 per cent of votes-on-account.

Further, the notification stated that as per Sections 166-170 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance had to present the draft budget to the council three weeks prior to the new financial year. Thus, by the end of March, the draft budget had to be presented. The council had to approve the same and send it to the state government for its nod. But, for 2013-14, as there was a writ petition pending before the High Court regarding the mayor’s election, polls for the same had not been conducted.

But as per Section 10(2) of the KMC Act, the mayor and deputy mayor shall hold office for a year or continue till their successors are elected. However, the Act does not specify anything on the mayor conducting the council meeting during this period.

The notification also stated that as three months of the financial year were over, the BBMP does not have any power to spend money allotted for 2013-14. Now that the monsoon has arrived, the BBMP needs to take up works to avoid rain-related damage.

The government has also noticed that the BBMP does not have funds to spend for essential works, including salaries for staff. “The government is considering this as a special and critical situation and has directed the mayor to present a realistic budget based on revenue generation,” the notification stated and asked the mayor to call for a special council meeting.