Now, get civic budget at the click of a mouse

BMC becomes the first in India to post its budget on the Net

For the discerning tax-payer who wants to know what the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has done with his hard-earned money, the civic body has taken one giant step forward in transparency. In a first of its kind in the country, the richest civic body will make its annual budget available at the click of a mouse.

Citizens who are not sure about what their civic fathers are up to or about the various projects undertaken by the civic body, will henceforth be able to have all information they want by logging on to www.mcgm.gov.in  No more making rounds of the BMC office. BMC decided to upload the whole Rs. 12866 crores budget on website. The BMC plans to upload the budget for 2007-2008 on its website within three months and updations will be carried out as and when they occur. For instance, you can know exactly how much money has been spent till date on a particular project.

Confirming this, Additional Commissioner Shrikant Singh, who has been entrusted with the computerisation work, said the present scheme would entail the use of  codified double entry system whereby one can access revenue and expenditure data in one go.

He said the budget would be accrual based, meaning all estimates would reflect on the balance sheet, which was not the case earlier. “

BMC Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said the entire exercise is based on the premise that there should be transparency in the civic working. We have employed the SAP software so we can list assets and liabilities,” he said., adding, “the new code system will automatically ensure that a new balance sheet for that year is in place on April 1.” For citizens, this means the BMC’s resolve to publish a half-yearly or quarterly appraisal of its own progress through a voluntary disclosure of its accounts.