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Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 23
The debt-ridden Municipal Corporation (MC) is all set to present its budget of Rs144.17 crore for 2019-20 on February 27.
It will be the fourth budget of Mayor Balwant Rai Nath’s tenure. Last year, a budget of Rs137 crore was presented. This year, Rs6 crore has been added to the budget proposal.
In the budget, no new tax has been proposed on city residents. There is no announcement of any new development project in the budget. The MC has kept Rs25 crore for development works.
The MC is expecting to get Rs91 crore from the state government as municipal funds. The civic body is also expecting to get Rs6 crore from the power cess. The lion’s share of the budget — Rs77.3 crore — will go in paying salaries to employees. It is 53 per cent of the total budget.
This trend is against the norms as per the MC Act, the civic body should spend 35 per cent of the total budget on paying salaries.
The MC is pinning hopes on property tax to get Rs11.50 crore. Apart from that, the MC is likely to get Rs50 lakh from fire cess, Rs3.15 crore from CLU, Rslakh from water supply charges, Rs1.50 crore from development charge, Rs2.30 crore from advertisements, Rs1.55 crore from rent, `2,50 crore from excise duty, Rs4 crore from cow cess, Rs10.82 crore from outstanding of water supply bills, Rs14 crore as building fee and Rs1.50 crore from building regularisation fee in the next financial year. In contingency expenditure, MC is likely to spent Rs20 lakh on stationery items, Rs25 lakh on office power bill, Rs15 lakh on vehicles maintenance, Rs3 lakh on telephone, Rs30 lakh on computers and photostat machines, Rs15 lakh on uniforms, Rs11 lakh on furniture, Rs4 lakh on insurance of vehicles, Rs3 lakh on fire bridge, Rs1 lakh on newspapers, Rs3 lakh on advertisement and public notices and Rs20 lakh on other expenditure.
Rs 137 cr kept last year
It will be the fourth budget of Mayor Balwant Rai Nath’s tenure. Last year, the civic body presented a budget of Rs 137 crore. This year, Rs 6 crore has been added to the budget proposal.
Lion’s share for paying salaries
The lion's share of the budget - Rs 77.3 crore - will go in paying salaries to employees. It is 53 per cent of the total budget. This trend is against the norms as per the MC Act, the civic body should spend 35 per cent of the total budget on paying salaries.
There is no announcement of any new development project in the budget. The MC has kept Rs 25 crore for development works. The MC is expecting to get Rs 91 crore from the state government as municipal funds.
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