Mayor Mallika Paramasivam presented a Rs. 11.54-crore
deficit Budget for the financial year 2013-14 at the special budget
meeting of the Erode Corporation Council held on Wednesday.

The civic administration projected Rs. 160.95 crore as revenue against an estimated expenditure of Rs. 172.49 crore.

To
compensate the deficit, the civic body proposed to augment the tax
revenue, impose water charges on restaurants and lodging houses
depending on their type, get more funds from the government and
implement cost-cutting measures. The Budget proposed to increase the
water charges and the deposit for new connections provided under the
Uratchikottai water supply scheme.

The civic body was
expecting revenue receipts to the tune Rs. 78.05 crore, while the
revenue expenditure was pegged at Rs. 87.25 crore.

The
Corporation would receive Rs. 82.89 crore as revenue from the capital
account and had planned a capital outlay of Rs. 85.23 crore for various
development works.

Out of the total revenue, the
Corporation was expecting Rs. 17.03 crore as revenue from property tax
in the next fiscal. The civic body has a total of 1,17,378 property tax
assessments. The total included 2,939 new assessments included during
the current fiscal.

The Corporation would receive
about Rs. 3.16 crore as professional tax and Rs. 2.64 crore as rent from
its 425 shops in the town.

The Mayor said that the
civic administration had planned to build a few more commercial
complexes including a modern complex with parking facility in the next
fiscal in order to enhance the revenue.

Deputy Mayor K.C. Palanisamy; Corporation Commissioner M. Vijayalakshmi; and senior officials were present.

The
Budget did not feature any major scheme for the development of the town
except the proposal to allocate funds for the much-awaited 80-ft road.

The
Mayor said the civic body would allot Rs. 50 lakh to lay the 80-ft road
connecting the Brough road and Chennimalai road. “We will start the
work quickly as it will help ease the traffic congestion in the town,”
she said.

The 80-ft road is one of the long pending
demands of the people in the town. Apart from this, no major
infrastructure projects has been announced.

But there
is mention of a number of programmes such as the plan to establish a
new bus stand and Uratchikottai water supply scheme, which found a place
in many previous budgets too. Ms. Mallika Paramasivam said the civic
body would prepare a proposal to establish a new bus stand as the
existing one could not handle the growing traffic. She, however, did not
spell out when the scheme would come up.

On the new
Uratchikottai water supply scheme, she said the proposal had already
reached advanced stage and it would be finalised shortly.

She
further said the civic body would sink 93 new borewells in different
parts of the town to ensure adequate supply of water to the residents.
Generators would be installed at the pumping stations and treatment
plants at a cost of Rs. 68 lakh.

While reading out
the status of the ongoing Under Ground Drainage project, she said it
would be completed and brought to public use by January 31, 2015.
Proposals had been submitted to the government seeking funds to relay
the roads that were damaged during the implementation of the project.
The civic officials were also preparing a detailed project report to lay
underground sewage pipelines in the newly added two town panchayats and
five village panchayats, she said.

The Budget
proposes to implement energy efficient practices in street lighting and
all the offices of civic body at a cost of Rs. 21 crore. It proposes to
establish a biogas plant at a cost of Rs. 90 lakh to generate power.

The plant will use the degradable waste generated in the town.