Sources said efforts were being made to identify the other resources for collecting more funds for Covid-19 expenditure. (Representational)The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation collected Rs seven crore through the 5 per cent Covid-19 cess levied on wholesale sale of liquor in Chandigarh over the last three months. The Covid-19 cess was imposed on the liquor vends across Chandigarh on May 21. The city has about 124 liquor vends. Besides the Covid-19 cess, a cow cess of Rs 5 per bottle is also collected. Sources said efforts were being made to identify the other resources for collecting more funds for Covid-19 expenditure. The Covid-19 cess on liquor, as per the orders of the UT Administration, will be levied up to December 31, 2020.
A senior MC officer said, “The MC has also decided to create an exclusive budget head named Covid-19 Expenditure for making provisions of upto Rs 20 crore in 2020-21 budget. So far, there are no dedicated budget provision exclusively for the expenditure on Covid-19 arrangements. The creation of separate budget is one of the agendas for upcoming virtual house meeting.”
The proposal states, “The expenditure under this project head will be incurred strictly as per the direction issued by the Principal Secretary Local Govt UT Chandigarh. Further, expenditure already incurred on Covid-19 related works will be recouped from this fund.”
Congress councillor Davinder Singh Babla said, “There is no transparency on the issue of expenditure being made on PPE kits, sanitizers, gloves, thermal scanners for checking body temperature. It is fine to create a dedicated expenditure head for Covid-19, but at the same time, it is also necessary to bring transparency in the purchase of material for the fight against Covid-19.” He also raised questions that before the Assembly sessions took place in the Vidhan Sabhas of Punjab and Haryana, the Mayor did not call the councillors for attending the house meeting physically, with the condition of following strict social distancing.