Increase in most charges, fees struck down

Vadodara: The standing committee of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) cleared the draft budget proposed by the municipal commissioner after striking down most proposals of increasing various charges and fees.
The committee passed a budget of Rs 3769.17crore for the year 2020-21 against the draft budget of Rs 3,770.54crore.
The VMC administration had refrained from raising taxes and other major options it had for increasing revenue in the draft budget. While the administration had claimed that the decision as taken as the finances of the civic body were manageable without any hikes, it is widely believed that this was done as civic polls were scheduled later this year and because the civic body had a poor track record in delivery of services in the current financial year.
The standing committee too stayed away from doing so as it was also eyeing to do away with hikes in various fees and charges proposed by the commissioner. The committee, however did not reduce any of these.
Committee chairman Satish Patel said the fees and charges were turned down as they would not affect the budget in a major way. The committee imposed hikes in the licence fee for water as well as drainage plumbers, architects, surveyors, site engineers, developers and others. Charges for drainage connections to cottage industries have been doubled as compared to last fiscal, but the committee did not agree to the hike proposed by the commissioner that was three times as compared to 2019-20.