No worry, no advantage for taxpayers in NMC budget

Nagpur: Standing committee chairman Pradip Pohane on Wednesday presented the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) surplus budget of Rs3,197.60 crore for 2019-20 with no hike in any type of taxes (property tax, water tariff etc) and no new tax system too.
Failing to find new revenue sources for the cash-strapped NMC, Pohane expected 62.64% of total revenue from the state government and announced one-time settlement (OTS) in local body tax (LBT) which is likely to cause a loss of around Rs700 crore and also implementation of 7th pay commission to the employees with effect from August 1.
31-year-old Pohane presented the budget to officiating mayor Deepraj Pardikar at Town Hall, Mahal, as mayor Nanda Jichkar could not be present for the NMC’s upmost event of the year. Shocking everyone in the house, ruling party leader Sandip Joshi requested the mayor to approve the budget without any discussion, citing lack of sufficient time in current fiscal due to assembly elections.
Corporators from opposition parties including Tanaji Wanve (leader of opposition), Sandip Sahare (Congress), Mohammed Jamal (BSP) and Abha Pande (independent) demanded discussion. Joshi then announced that the discussion on the budget will be held on Friday when it will be passed, implemented and supersede the budget presented by municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar in February.
In some respite for developmental works, Pohane did not announce arrears of 7th pay commission for the employees which would have brought an additional burden of around Rs120 crore on the civic body. But the NMC employees are at the receiving end as they lost arrears due from January 1, 2016.
Giving a green colour to the budget by announcing a few environment conservation projects, Pohane said, “My tenure witnessed Lok Sabha elections and now assembly polls are due from September first week. Therefore, I avoided announcement of big developmental projects and have planned to complete all the ongoing and the proposed projects. I planned some new concepts which can be implemented and will be beneficial for the city,” he said.
Citing non-recovery of LBT dues, Pohane said OTS will encourage traders to pay which will help increase NMC’s revenue. “Traders will be given exemption from paying interest and penalty,” he said.
Of total dues of Rs900 crore, the amount of interest and penalty comes to around Rs700 crore.
Pohane also announced OTS for those drawing water through illegal connections. But Pohane did not announce OTS for recovery of arrears of water bills as well as property tax. “We launched OTS for property tax and water bills twice in the past. We will recover arrears by taking stringent action,” he said.
Pohane did not follow the footprints of the past chairpersons of announcing projects for his respective assembly constituency. “I have taken responsibility of the entire city’s development,” he said.
Despite CM Devendra Fadnavis sanctioning Rs300 crore special grants for the second capital in the last fiscal, Pohane expected only Rs150 crore this year. Citing last fiscal’s surplus of Rs399.87 crore, Pohane did not expect any rise in revenue compared to the last budget. But Pohane tabled budget of Rs745.24 crore more as compared to Bangar’s budget.
Explaining reason behind high expectations, Pohane, a close aide of East Nagpur MLA Krishna Khopde, said the government increased GST grant to a great extent and another revision is likely in July. “Revenue from property tax will rise with completion of revaluation drive. I am expecting some revenue by developing commercial shops and bus feeder points on spaces left along Metro Rail corridors, shifting Netaji Flower Market to APMC land at Ganeshpeth etc. I will launch new advertisement policy and would request for matching grant from the state’s urban development department,” he said.
Pohane planned to utilize pending loan amount of Rs195 crore for completing mega developmental projects. But at the end of fiscal, the NMC will be left with loan due of Rs518.26 crore.
Winning accolades from corporators, Pohane announced special funds of Rs20 lakh for each of 10 zone chairpersons for solving problems raised by the citizens. He continued with the ward fund of Rs20 lakh per corporator.
Ruling party leader Sandip Joshi termed Pohane’s budget as a realistic one. “Pohane showed a big heart and courage for not announcing big projects and concentrated on completing ongoing projects. He covered all segments of the city in his budget,” he said.
Former mayor and BJP city president Pravin Datke lauded Pohane’s budget. “It is a perfect budget in available time and scope of funds,” he said.
Pohane announced no requirement of administrative approvals for works from the standing committee. “After receiving letters from the committee, the civic chief can directly start tendering process of works. This would ensure speedy execution and completion of works,” he said.