At the civic headquarters in Pimpri, the PCMC chief presented his budget draft to Standing Committee Chairman Santosh Londe, who sought time to study the budget and make suggestions and objections. (Express Photo)
Ahead of the civic elections due in February next year, newly-appointed Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Patil on Thursday presented a surplus budget of Rs 5,588 crore, proposing no additional water or property taxes. With the central government projects, the total budget amount is Rs 7,112 crore.
At the civic headquarters in Pimpri, the PCMC chief presented his budget draft to Standing Committee Chairman Santosh Londe, who sought time to study the budget and make suggestions and objections.
Though it is an election year, the budget proposed no major development projects in view of the problems in tax collection this fiscal due to the lockdown.
After presenting his budget, Patil, while interacting with the media, said, “We will try to complete the ongoing projects as well as start a few new projects as mentioned in the budget.”
He added, “This year, our tax collection has been hit hard due to the lockdown being in force. Next fiscal, we hope to improve our tax collection… with support from local residents, civic employees, officials, NGOs and elected representatives, we will make every effort to make Pimpri-Chinchwad a world- class city”.
Patil said the civic body will also focus on assessing unassessed properties in Pimpri-Chichwad. “… This will help us in increasing our property tax collection,” he said.
Since the budget was prepared by former PCMC chief Shravan Hardikar, who was transferred recently, Patil, who joined on Monday, said he also needed time to study the budget and its proposals. “I will elaborate on the proposals later,” he said.
Stating that his administration will lay stress on paperless governance, Patil said,”Efforts will be made to strengthen our network to collect taxes, via property, water and building permissions, to shore up our revenue.”
The PCMC chief said his administration was also planning to come up with social impact bonds. “These bonds can be floated for social measures like health,” he said.
The budget envisages collection of Rs 950 crore from property tax, Rs 520 crore from building permissions, Rs 95 crore from water tax and Rs 193 crore from interest of deposits.
For civil works and social security schemes, Rs 2,380 crore has been provided in the budget, while Rs 834 crore has been provided for central government schemes. “For water supply plans, the budget has reserved Rs 437 crore. All efforts will be made to ease the water travails of local residents…,” said the civic chief.
The budget has a provision of Rs 101 crore for medical department, Rs 107 crore for health department, Rs 222 crore for education, and Rs 202 crore for urban poor and social welfare.