Deccan Herald           27.07.2013

Palike budget: It’s status quo on property tax, trade licence

Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy on Friday
presented an inflated budget for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike
(BBMP), with an outlay of Rs 8,520.56 crore.

The
budget, while putting the anticipated receipts at Rs 8520.56 crore and
expenditure at Rs 8519.66 crore, appears to be pinning high hopes on
revenue sources, which have failed to deliver in the past. However, the
outlay of the budget is Rs 1,400 crore less than that for the previous
financial year.

The mayor was firm that the geographical
information system based property identification (PId) would fetch the
BBMP Rs 3,200 crore. This assertion is despite the fact that the BBMP
could earn about Rs 1,250 crore last year.

For the convenience of property owners, Palike has
made a provision in the budget to allow property tax collection in many
other banks in Bangalore besides IDBI Bank, Corporation Bank, Indusind
Bank and Axis Bank.

The budget largely remains dependent on
various State and Central government funds amounting to Rs 1732.88
crore. It also hopes to garner Rs 550 crore from optical fibre cables
once the matter is cleared by the Karnataka High Court. Apart from this,
the budget expects Rs 107.5 crore from advertisements and penalties
under the Disfigurement of Public Places and Environment Act and Rs 25
crore from trade licences.  Mayor said stress has been laid on the
present financial condition of the Palike and it has been decided to
take up only essential development works. He announced that the BBMP
Council will discuss budget on Monday.

Opposition decries

The
leader of the Opposition in the Palike Council, M K Gunashekar
(Congress), dubbed the budget  ‘Yet another bogus and spillover budget.’

He said the Mayor did not make any remarkable announcement but carried forward most of the old schemes.

“A
wonderful opportunity was given by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to
present a realistic budget, which the mayor has lost. I will apprise the
chief minister about the shortcomings in this inflated budget, asking
the BBMP to take corrective measures,” Gunashekar said.

Congress corporators sported black ribbon as a mark of protest against the delay and
‘inflated’
budget. The proceedings of the Council was disrupted for a while when
the Congress corporators trooped into the Well of the House raising
slogans against the BJP. Some corporators from RajarajeshwariNagar
Assembly constituency staged a dharna till the mayor finished his budget
speech.

“ There is no difference between the budgets of this
year and last year. I do not find anyinteresting proposals thisa time.
For past three years, the Palike is announcing signal-free corridors and
road improvement works. But, none of them has been implemented,” said
JD(S) Floor leader, T Thimme Gowda.

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