The Hindu 27.02.2010
Mayor presents deficit budget in Tirupur Corporation
Staff Reporter
| AIADMK councillors stage walkout |
— Photo: M. Balaji 
Mayor K. Selvaraj (right) presenting the Budget at the Corporation council meeting in Tirupur on Thursday.
Tirupur: Mayor K. Selvaraj presented a deficit budget of Rs. 8.76 crore for 2010-11 fiscal at the Corporation council meeting convened here on Thursday.
The budget had pegged the estimated income at Rs. 127.04 crore with revenue receipts realization targeted at Rs. 57.57 crore and capital receipts (loans and long-term receipts) at Rs. 69.46 crore.
The expenditure was projected at Rs. 135.8 crore with revenue expenditure at Rs. 58.57 crore and the rest planned to be spent under the head of capital expenditure.
To set off the deficit, the Corporation would augment the tax collections during the next financial year.
Mr. Selvaraj said that the administration had aimed at realizing Rs. 13.75 crore as property tax, Rs. 1.31 crore as professional tax and Rs. 2.05 crore as service charges.
P.R. Natarajan of CPI termed the budget document as “cosmetically elegant in its cover without anything constructive inside for infrastructure development and improvement of basic amenities”.
He pointed out that most of the promises in the last budget like ultra sonogram for Corporation-run maternity clinics and improvement of facilities in Corporation-owned schools remained promises even today, making the exercise meaningless.
Walkout
The AIADMK councillors staged a walkout stating that many of the projected financial allocations had already been outlined during the previous two budgets and repeated this time.
S. Sivabalan of MDMK blamed the administration for low professional tax collection.
The reporters and photo journalists staged a walkout during the council meeting after the officials concerned failed to make arrangements to ensure proper coverage of the council meeting.
The reporters returned to the council hall only after they received the copy of the budget document and the agenda paper, the access of which were first denied to the media.
