The ten year report of the Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA & UD) released by Minister K.T. Rama Rao mentioned astronomical amount of funds infused as capital investment into the city development.
The report put close to ₹70,000 crore investment into the city between 2014 and 2023 through GHMC, HMDA, HMWS&SB and HGCL alone, excluding ₹18,581 crore investment attributed to Hyderabad Metro Rail.
The aim was to draw a comparison with the amounts spent between 2004 and 2014, before Telangana emerged as a separate State. Mere ₹16,833 crore were spent during the previous decade under the joint State on city, the report said.
It also seeks to dismiss the Central assistance for the city development, through a pie chart which shows only 8.2% as the Government of India’s contribution, and the remaining by the Telangana State government.
Obfuscated and pushed to a corner is the fact that major portion of this funding is through loans and private investments, and not through budgetary allocations.
The fine print in the report attributes the funds to own resources of the respective agencies, public-private partnerships, Telangana State contribution to Central schemes and other sources.
Other sources occupy major portion of the capital investments, mostly loans and funds infused through public-private partnerships, providing for several of the projects, including Strategic Road Development Plan, Strategic Nala Development Programme, Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme, drinking water supply schemes, and even the double bedroom housing project.
For GHMC, a whopping ₹39,605 crore out of ₹44,022 crore is from own resources, State government funding and other sources put together. Much of this comes from GHMC’s own revenues and loans, and very little from the State government.
As per data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act earlier, the pending dues payable to GHMC from the State government by way of property tax on government buildings amounted to ₹5,500 crore over the years.
“Ten per cent of the Motor Vehicle Tax receipts and 95% of the Professional Tax receipt from the city are to be devolved back to GHMC, which is hardly ever done. Never in its history has the corporation been so deep in debts, but the State government is trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes by stating these figures,” lambasted M. Srinivas, CPI(M)‘s Greater Hyderabad Central Committee secretary.
Motor Vehicle tax receipts exceed ₹700 crore annually, and the Professional Tax receipts more than ₹500 crore.
With respect to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), State budget and own funds are mere ₹ 8,998.00 crore out of the ₹18,581 crore cited. HUDCO loan of ₹4,717 crore funds the Krishna and Godavari Drinking Water schemes, while the STP project and the drinking water network within ORR are funded partially through annuity mode under public-private partnerships.
