The city corporation sought to present an optimistic budget projecting surplus revenue of Rs 17.74 crore in 2018-19. But the rosy budget had enough thorns hidden, likely to prick the civic body’s financial discipline in the coming year.
The budget presented by corporation commissioner and special officer K Vijayakarthikeyan projected a total revenue of Rs 1,257 crore, while placing the estimated expenditure at Rs 1,274 crore. This is the second consecutive year that the civic body has presented a surplus budget. Incidentally, this is also the second budget tabled in the absence of a council, since local body elections were not held.
The city corporation has bulked up its revenue receipts by harping on grants and loans from state and central governments. This in turn has helped the corporation to present a surplus budget. “We have received Rs 35 crore from the state government already and we will get more funds in the coming months,” said Vijayakarthikeyan.
If announcements of new projects in the budget 2018–19 were few compared to previous years, the civic body’s claim of a surplus budget also seems to offer very little reason to cheer for the simple reason that the civic body has pending dues to the tune of Rs 85 crore in terms of bills for the contractors. The pending dues are almost four times higher than the surplus of Rs 17.74 crore. In addition, there are no signs of the corporation’s coffers getting richer.
The woes of the Coimbatore’s municipal administration do not just end there. Their income from investments which had dipped drastically last year has become zero this year. From Rs 72.51 crore in 2015-2016, it became Rs 4.91crore in 2016-2017. In 2017-2018 and this year, their income from investments is zero which means, the corporation does not have any deposit amount in the banks. Also, their interest and finance charges have doubled in the past two years which means, the corporation is taking more loans to stay afloat. From Rs 5 crore in 2016-2017, it has been projected as Rs 10 crore for this year.
Further, the corporation had taken Rs140 crore loan for repaying contractor dues and another Rs 43 crore loan for the Nanjundapuram sewage treatment plant which has no mention in the budget.
Secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause K Kathirmathiyon said it is evident that despite the revenue receipts, the corporation is taking several loans. “Then how can it be a surplus budget. We do not understand what they mean by surplus. It is a known fact that projects are not being taken up due to lack of funds. Earlier, they had more than Rs 200 crore deposit and since receipts were not sufficient, they took out deposits and now they say - we are in surplus. This is an accounting gimmick,” he said.
DMK MLA N Karthik said the corporation’s financial position is very bad. “Since local body election was not held, the central and state governments’ funds have not reached the corporation. Even state government’s financial support is lacking. All the five years budget if analyzed, it will be a repeat of the previous years. They are yet to pay contractors who completed works two years ago. It will be caught in a huge problem, if this is not set right,” Karthik said.
