The fiscal health of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is much better this year than it was earlier, claimed Thulasi Madineni, Special Commissioner (Finance), who presented a Budget with an outlay of ₹10,484.28 crore, which was approved late on Thursday night, a mere hour before the 2021-22 financial year drew to a close.
The revenue mop up over the past year has been good and with various measures now in the pipeline, revenue mobilisation in the new financial year would improve, she stated. She claimed that of the outlay, ₹6,472 crore was estimated as BBMP’s own receipts (including tax and non-tax revenue), while ₹4,013 crore would be various government grants.
She, however, admitted that the BBMP has pending bills amounting to ₹3,642 crore and on-going works amounting to ₹3,967 crore. The State government through various schemes had approved development works amounting to ₹9,000 crore as well. “Of this, we had submitted bills for ₹1,400 crore. The State Government has released ₹1,000 crore in installments,” she said and added that the civic body had also begun to clear the pending bills of contractors on seniority basis from Friday.
Revenue mobilisation
Several initiatives have been proposed to mop up more revenue. Revenue officials will be given a target of increasing the property tax collection in their respective jurisdictions by at least 10%. Measures would also be taken to increase revenue from optic fibre cables and town planning departments.
The BBMP has once again proposed linking the RR numbers of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) with the property tax ids. This, she said, would help widen the tax net. “We have already collected ₹3,000 crore revenue in 2021-22. If these initiatives are put in place, there will be better revenue mobilisation,” she said.
This too was proposed by the civic body several years ago. Several rounds of discussions took place between the BBMP and Bescom. However, the proposal was put on the backburner.
