New civic budget will not have any new taxes

Don’t expect any new taxes in the budget for the next fiscal which is to be declared today. The municipal commissioner will present a surplus budget, which is expected to be above Rs21,500 crore.
Despite an estimated increase of over Rs1,500 crore, the civic body plans to focus on completion of ongoing the project works.

Nearly 57% of the budgetary allocation will be spent in meeting revenue-related expenses like salaries of employees, establishments’ costs and other non-project works.

As far as the capital works are concerned, the focus will be on projects for improvement in the water supply network. Completion of work and projects already undertaken will be the theme of the budget.

Interestingly, just like last year, expenditure for capital works will largely rely on internal loans and withdrawals from deposits (special funds) being maintained by the BMC. The civic body currently has over Rs13,015,463 by way of deposits in banks. Of this, Rs8,700-odd crore can be tapped. Sources revealed that close to Rs5,000 crore will be committed to boost capital income receipts.

The BMC has projected an increase in tax collection from all its four major revenue earners — octroi, property tax, development plan receipts, and water and sewerage tax. As a part of the outcome budgeting exercise, first introduced in 2008-09, the BMC will disclose parameters (performance indicators) for its key departments. The parameters will be used to measure the success of budgetary allocations made for the next fiscal.