Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s council, continuing its meeting from Monday, approved the civic body’s budget for ₹7,937 crore for the year 2024-25 on Tuesday. This is apart from the ₹500 crore anticipated from the Housing Corporation towards construction and improvements of housing units for the poor.
The council also unanimously passed a resolution seeking ₹3,492 crore financial assistance from the State government towards debt servicing, compensation, taxes, and devolution from the State Finance Commission’s funds.
The budget has shown revenue receipts of ₹5938 crore from various sources, including ₹1,200 crore compensation to GHMC from the State budget for debt servicing. Other sources of revenue included ₹1,907 crore property tax collection, ₹1,600 crore town planning fee, ₹785 crore revenue receipts from the government, ₹200 crore mutation fee, ₹110 crore trade license fee, ₹20 crore advertisement fee, and others.
The ₹1999 capital receipts included ₹1,200 crore capital grants from the government and ₹350 crore grants from the 15th Finance Commission.
On the expenditure side, ₹1,550 crore was allocated for roads, bridges, comprehensive road maintenance programme, and ₹874 crore for debt servicing. ₹700 crore was allotted for land acquisition and ₹320 crore for strategic nala development project (SNDP).
Legislator and ex-officio member Mohammed Majid Hussain, who mooted the proposal to seek ₹3,500 crore grant from the State government, remarked that the GHMC’s budget is heavily dependent on assigned revenues and grants, the realisation of which was uncertain.
He pointed out that the funds GHMC proposed to generate on its own were only ₹3,646 crore, and the remaining were expected from the State and Central governments.
“Of this, unavoidable expenditure such as salaries and establishment expenses amounts to ₹3,543 crore. Contractors’ pending bills alone stand at ₹1,154 crore. We all know how much budgetary support was actually delivered from the State government for the past seven to eight years. Where is the income source?” Mr. Hussain questioned. The utmost priority now is to make GHMC financially stable, he added.
Corporator Jagadeeshwar Goud advised levy of ‘structural tax’ on illegal structures which are thriving for several years. Another corporator Sravan Vurapalli suggested dumping of the CRMP to reduce wasteful expenditure.
Prior to that, the question hour was continued from where it was left off on Monday, and issues pertaining to property tax and sanitation were discussed threadbare.
Corporator Samala Hema pointed out that the online self assessment system for property tax is accepting fake documents too. When old structures are demolished to build new ones, the old PTIN is not being removed from the system, she said.
Corporator from Mylardevpally T. Srinivas Reddy brought attention to the underassessment of industrial establishments in Katedan industrial area.
Another corporator Akula Srivani questioned if the property’s extent and use are being verified after the self assessment.
Commissioner Ronald Rose informed that GIS mapping is proposed for the GHMC area, which will map the extent of all the structures in city, and also the drains. It will help a great deal in resolving assessment and door numbering issues, he said.
Several corporators complained vociferously about lack of enough sweeping units, and pathetic garbage collection.
