GHMC standing committee is likely to be presented with the draft budget proposals for the financial year 2022-23 amounting to ₹6,150 crore.
This is ₹550 crore higher than the previous year’s budget, to be met from the revenue majorly through property tax, building permission fee, trade license fee and borrowings.
The draft budget shows ₹3434 crore as revenue receipts and ₹2800 crore as revenue expenditure, which leaves a revenue surplus of ₹634 crore. Amount to be spent on capital expenditure is shown at ₹3,350 crore.
The estimates for revenue receipts for the current year have been revised from ₹3,811 crore to ₹3,288 crore, while the revenue expenditure has been revised to ₹2,600 crore from ₹2414 crore.
Capital receipts and expenditure have been upgraded to ₹3,700 crore from ₹3,188 crore for the current year mainly due to revision of borrowings from an estimated ₹1224.5 crore to ₹1797 crore. This is mainly on account of term loans availed from banks for the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP).
In the budget proposals for the upcoming financial year ₹1700 crore is aimed to be collected through property tax receipts, which is downsized from the ambitious ₹1852 crore targeted for the current financial year. The revised estimates for the current year have been pegged at ₹1650 crore, which is lower than the actual receipts for the year 2020-21, at ₹1701 crore.
Receipts aimed through collection of building permission fee are relatively buoyant at ₹1200 crore, as against ₹1100 crore budgetary estimates for the current year, which remain unaltered in the revised estimates showing a positive trend.
Trade license fee has undergone a major revision from ₹70 crore to mere ₹51 crore for the current year, and is pegged at ₹63 crore in the budgetary estimates for 2022-23.
Fund estimates from State Finance Commission and 15th Finance Commission shown under the head ‘Pattana Pragathi’ are pegged at ₹708 crore, while ₹1303 crore are shown as fresh borrowings aimed for the year.
A new head Transferable Deposit Receipts amounting to ₹500 crore is shown under the Capital Receipts section of the draft budget proposals.
Under the Expenditure head, Road Infrastructure is shown as major component with budgetary allocation of ₹1500 crore, followed by Health & Sanitation at ₹1140 crore.
Capital expenditure on nalas has been tossed up to ₹490 crore from the ₹150 crore shown in the revised budgetary estimates for the current financial year, after allocation of ₹340 crore for the Strategic Nala Development Programme.
As the debt is going up, the debt servicing component too has been spiraling, with ₹500 crore allocated in the budget estimates, as against the ₹170 crore in the estimates for the current year, which have been revised to ₹325 crore. During the year 2020-21, the expenditure for debt servicing was only ₹205 crore.
Among the major projects, allocations for the SRDP and Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme have been toned down, while increased funding has been made for the SNDP.
