The Performance Report of the 2018-19 budget presented on Monday is, in many ways, a reflection of what ails the civic body. Though the BBMP had presented a budget of ₹10,132.85 crore for the current fiscal, it has now been revised to ₹7,380.12 crore, a massive 27.1% decrease.
According to the performance report, the civic body missed most of its revenue targets, including property tax by a huge margin. Other sources of income, including advertisements, optic fibre cables and mobile towers, have also failed to provide decent revenue.
The BBMP had proposed but failed to collect ₹300 crore betterment charge this fiscal. However, it is optimistic that it will be successful this time around. The budget implementation rate is pegged at 57% which is low, but Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun argued that going by BBMP’s track record, it was an improvement.
The report, however, is a testament to a larger problem. A close reading shows many of the civic works presented in the 2018-19 budget have not even been tendered yet and are stuck in the DPR or action plan stage. Most of those tendered have been issued job codes but not work orders. It also reveals how the BBMP has not been able to untangle itself from the mass of red tape as it lists a string of projects and proposals that have been pending before the State government for approval. Civic officials argue that this was a legacy problem. Most of the ongoing works in the present fiscal were part of the 2017-18 budget, they said.
The BBMP may not have the capacity to spend this much money — as earmarked in successive budgets — in a year as is borne out by the performance report, said urban expert Ashwin Mahesh. “Given the slow pace of contracts and weaknesses in design and implementation, it will be better to make a smaller budget that is more achievable each year,” he said.
Projects dropped:
- To build residences for Mayor and BBMP Commissioner
- To provide free Wi-Fi in select spots in the city
- A five-arm skywalk at Hudson Circle using engineered wood
- The ambitious project to build 8 helipads finds no mention in the performance report