Civic authorities are expected to trim the estimate for capital expenditure, considering that the actual spending never touches more than 40 to 50 per cent of the total capital expenditure estimates
With political parties mounting pressure on Municipal Commssioner Ajoy Mehta to present a ‘realistic’ budget without inflated figures and tax burden, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is likely to present a modest budget on Wednesday, as compared to what was envisaged earlier. Civic authorities are expected to trim the estimate for capital expenditure, considering that the actual spending never touches more than 40 to 50 per cent of the total capital expenditure estimates.
Mehta will present the BMC budget for the year 2017-18 to Standing Committee Chairman Ramesh Korgaonkar on March 29.
With Goods and Services Tax (GST) expected to be rolled out by September this year, cash income from Octroi collection is all set to go. This will affect several of the civic body’s key projects planned for the next year.
“The civic administration has anyway been steadily bringing down the capital expenditure budget for each of the past few years. This year, while each sector will be given due weightage, the money will be allocated conservatively, keeping in mind previous track records of expenditure,” said a senior civic official.
“A long-time concern has been that each year, only 40 per cent, and in some rare cases 50 per cent, of the allocated funds are used,” the official added.
Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar had written a letter to the Municipal Commissioner and demanded a realistic budget, while BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar also wrote to Mehta demanding that taking the BMC’s financial condition into consideration, no taxes should be increased.
“The concerns raised by the political parties are likely to find resonance in the budget. The Shiv Sena has raised concerns about the huge budget estimates that have never translated into consumption by the end of the financial year. The yearly estimates have inflated figures and the funds marked for the respective projects are never utilised to their fullest capacity. So the outlay will be such that there are no extra frills attached,” said another senior civic official.
PROJECTS IN DANGER?
With Octroi likely to be phased out and GST to be introduced, the civic body will face an initial financial crunch on its exchequer. This will affect the execution of proposed projects that were touted by the Shiv Sena during the recent poll campaign launched by party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Thackeray had also announced that the property tax for homes below 500 sq ft will be exempted. However, most homes in the city fall under this bracket and the civic body will suffer huge losses if the scheme is applied, especially when it is also going to lose out on Octroi collections.
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