For the last two years, the civic body had presented budgets of over ₹9,000, but revenue generated annually had not crossed ₹8,000 crore. The 2018-19 budget also optimistically pegs the total revenue receipts at ₹9,322, even though the revised estimates for 2017-18 budget has seen a drop of 24.8%.
An analysis of the previous five budgets reveals a reliance on State grants, which has significantly reduced this year.
“From 54% in 2016-17, the 2018-19 budget proposes to reduce this to 39%, primarily by mobilising its own revenue. On the converse, the own revenue component has increased from 44% last year to a proposed 56% this year,” said Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy.
The BBMP has set a high target of ₹5,254 crore from its own sources this year, an uphill task given that the civic body has not been successful in crossing the ₹3,500 crore mark till date. But it has seen an overall increase of 28% over the last five years.
The Annual Survey of Indian City Systems (ASICS) by Janaagraha has revealed that Mumbai and Pune contribute more than 60% of their budget from their own sources.
Last year, 8,528 job codes amounting to ₹3,241 crore were created against the revised estimates of ₹7,514 crore. This indicates that job codes against only 43% of the estimated expenditure had been created in the current year. Job codes are internal documents created by the BBMP after tenders for works are cleared.
“This is significantly lower than 2016-17 where job codes against 83.6% of the expenditure were created. Further, out of bills paid up to February 2018, 81% pertained to pending or spillover bills while only 19% pertained to the current year’s works,” said Sapna Karim of Janaagraha.
