Panchkula MC okays Rs 157-crore Budget

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, March 7

The Panchkula Municipal Corporation has approved a Budget of Rs157.18 crore for the 2022-23 fiscal during a special Budget meeting at Kisan Bhawan in Sector 14 with an amount of Rs69.72 crore earmarked for development works.

The proposed expenditure for the next financial year is Rs155.46 crore.

For the 2021-22 fiscal, the MC had approved a Budget of Rs119.37 crore.

The MC is expected to earn Rs10 crore from advertisement tenders, Rs15 crore from mobile tower free,

Rs15 crore from laying of telecom and fibre lines, Rs25 crore from property tax, Rs35 crore as stamp duty and Rs25 crore as share from the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP).

However, Congress councillors raised questions about the expected income, saying the MC had failed to recover its share from the HSVP during the last financial year too.

Salim Dabkouri, Congress councillor from ward number 20 and Leader of the Opposition, said last year too, the MC was expecting an income of Rs20 crore from the HSVP, but failed to recover it.

Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal replied that he would write to the authorities concerned for paying the dues of the MC. The matter would also be discussed with the revenue and realisation committee.

JJP councillor from ward number 14 Sushil Garg questioned the proposed collection of stamp duty.

Meanwhile, the Congress councillors also expressed their displeasure over

providing them a copy of the proposed Budget only last evening.

“We should get the copy at least a few days before the Budget meeting so that we can go through it thoroughly and raise questions,” said Dabkouri.

To this, Goyal said he would make sure that from next time, the councillors get the Budget copy on time.

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