GMDA stares at cash crunch, eyes help from corpn, DTCP

Gurgaon: Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) might be looking at a possible financial crisis as the two-year-old body is likely to see a deficit of around Rs 300 crore in income for the 2019-20 fiscal, compared to its estimated expenses. While the estimated expenditure for the 2019-20 fiscal is Rs 1,443 crore, the estimated income is only about Rs 1,100. Of that, more than Rs 1,000 crore is pending from water charges, sundry charges and conversion charges, among others.
GMDA chief V Umashankar said, “We have a corpus of around Rs 250 crore and we are expecting the department of town and country planning to pay the external development charges (EDC). However, despite these funds, we are still short of around Rs 300 crore, which we plan to generate through cess.” He added that GMDA planned to start levying cess on excise as well as property value to start generating revenue. “The provision for charging cess has been there right from the beginning but we wanted to do some development on the ground before we can start levying it,” said Umashankar.

According to sources in the government, GMDA was planning to seek additional funds from MCG. “The MCG commissioner turned down the request as the councillors refused further transfer of funds from MCG to GMDA,” said the source.

Umashankar, however, denied the claims and said GMDA had not sought any additional funds from MCG. The municipal corporation had transferred Rs 500 crore to GMDA as seed fund to be used for development in the areas within municipal limits.

Councillors have raised the matter in the House meetings several times, according to sources.

Another reason behind discontent is that GMDA has used the seed money for development in areas beyond the municipality limits, despite the conditions of transfer stating otherwise. “We have used around Rs 99 crore of MCG funds for development in non-MCG areas, as we have not received EDC funds from the DTCP. However, we will recoup the money and invest it in MCG areas once the EDC charges start flowing in,” said Umashankar.

There are also talks of dividing stamp duty charges between MCG and GMDA. As of now, MCG charges 2% on stamp duty. It is likely to be split equally between GMDA and MCG. However, the proposal has also been opposed by councillors. MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav could not be reached for a comment.

While around Rs 250 crore is pending from the money GMDA had taken from MCG, Rs 120 crore is pending from water charges and Rs 20 crore is pending in sundry charges.

Mayor Madhu Azad said, “Last year, we had given some money to GMDA for development. We will not give any more funds to GMDA as the House has refused it.”

Conversion charges worth Rs 120 crore, interest income worth Rs 20 crore and Rs 534.90 crore from EDC are also pending. It remains to be seen if GMDA actually invests Rs 1,443 towards infrastructure development in the city.