MC passes Rs 1044-cr budget for city

Ludhiana: The Ludhiana municipal corporation on Thursday passed an annual budget worth Rs 1,044 crore for the next fiscal 2020-21, almost Rs 100 crore more than what was approved by the House for 2019-20 last year.
The MC House had given a nod to Rs 949-crore budget last year, but the local bodies department had axed the budget to Rs 846 crore by reducing the annual GST share.
The budget session, which lasted for more than an hour, witnessed uproar as the opposition attacked the ruling Congress, claiming that the MC is yet to get Rs 346 crore from the previous budget.
Importantly, 62.17% of the budget has been kept for various development works. The officials have proposed 35.44% expenditure on establishment, including salaries, while 2.39% has been kept for contingency expenditure. To achieve better facilities for the city residents, there is revision in income generation sources as well.
In the proposed budget, the civic body has kept Rs 167 crore for new development works and Rs 77.50 crore for maintenance works. But no councillor sought a break-up of these allocations. The MC has planned to spend Rs 113 crore on city roads against Rs 100 crore allocated in the last fiscal. For water supply, sewerage system, storm sewerage and chlorination of tube wells, there has been no change in the proposed amount (Rs 40 crore) as compared to last year.
But in a major change, the MC has hiked expenditure on maintenance of public parks from Rs 7 crore to Rs 16 crore this year. Besides, Rs 3 crore has been kept for slum areas which was Rs 90 lakh last fiscal.
Proposed earnings and spending
Revenue target
GST | Rs 460cr
Property tax | Rs 130cr
Operation and maintenance | Rs 90cr
Municipal tax on electricity | Rs 45cr
Advertisement tax | Rs 23cr
Building composition fee | Rs 32cr
Rent/tehbazaari charges | Rs 10cr
Excise duty | Rs 39cr
Sale of MC property | Rs 10cr
Expenditure On Devp Works
New development works | Rs 167cr
Roads | Rs 113cr
Water supply and sewerage works | Rs 40cr
Maintenance of parks | Rs 16cr
Slums | Rs 3cr
Annual cleaning of Buddha Nullah | Rs 2cr
PGs, hostels as commercial properties
As the MC has fixed revenue target worth Rs 130 crores from property tax in next financial year, the quarters, paying guests and hostels will now be treated as commercial properties. From these properties the civic officials will charge property tax at 7.5 percent of the annual rent being recovered from the tenants.
Provide details: MLA to mayor
Congress MLA from North constituency Rakesh Pandey raised question marks on revenue target, saying that the MC has collected only Rs 2.61 crore as municipal tax on electricity up to December, and in next few days they are expecting to earn Rs 22.38 crore for the same. The MC had received Rs 17 lakh up to December 2019 from sale of properties and now it is expecting end they will get Rs 1.82 crore by the month-end, he said. Pandey questioned the mayor why they had not provided a break-up of these heads. Pandey said MC is generating money from cow cess, but the house has never been informed which cow shed is getting how much money.
Pandey asked the mayor to first explain these things and then approve this budget. The mayor assured the MLA that in next House meeting, he will put up everything in front of House members.