HYDERABAD: Hit by fund crunch, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is struggling to even pay salaries. GHMC staff, including top officials and ground-level staff, are yet to receive salary for January.
GHMC commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar has instructed six zonal commissioners to hold salaries in their respective zones till further instructions. As per civic records, the average expenditure of the corporation per month is Rs 250 crore, which includes salaries, maintenance and payment of bills to contractors. While salaries and maintainanace sum up to Rs 120 crore, on an average, Rs 130 crore is paid to contractors for civic works.
GHMC’s major source of income is property tax and building permissions.
For the current financial year (2020-21), GHMC plans to generate Rs 800 crore revenue through building permissions, but was able to generate around Rs 482 crore.
In the previous year (2019-20) till January, Rs 766 crore was generated through building permissions, however, the town planning wing was able to save over Rs 1,400 crore by issuing transferable development rights (TDR) certificates instead of giving cash compensation to property owners whose land had been acquired. The civic body was hoping to fill its coffers using property tax and generate Rs 1,400 crore, but was able to generate only Rs 1,289.68 crore this financial year (till January). However, the collections crossed previous year’s revenue. In 2019-20 till January, the property tax collections stood at Rs 1,258 crore.
To execute infrastructure projects under the strategic road development plan (SRDP), GHMC has availed Rs 2,500 crore loan at 8.65 % interest rate. “The money will be released phase-wise, they will be credited to the agencies depending on the progress of the works,” a GHMC official said.
Employee unions said ground-level staff should be paid salaries before higher-ups get their due. “Sanitation workers performed their duties amid Covid-19 too risking their life, many of them are sole bread winners for their family,” Greater Hyderabad Municipal Employees’ Union president U Gopal said.
The civic body also did not get any aid from the state government. “For the past two years, the civic body has hardly been getting assistance from state government. In 2017-19, GHMC wrote to the state government seeking Rs 67 crore, but got only Rs 1.3 crore,” a GHMC official said.