Corp's Budget
Finance and Taxation Committee Chairman A. Nandakumar (right) presents a copy of the Coimbatore Corporation’s budget to Mayor R. Venkatachalam (second left) at the Council on Wednesday. Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran (second right) and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik are in the picture.
The Coimbatore Corporation announced in its budget on Wednesday that the civic body plans to spend Rs.14.63 crore more in the coming financial year on development works. The allocation has been raised to Rs.106.70 crore from a little over Rs.92 crore in the current year that is to end on March 31.Mayor R. Venkatachalam, who gave a gist of the budget, and Finance and Taxation Committee Chairman A. Nandakumar, who presented it in the Corporation Council, said that a significant move was the allocation of Rs.8 crore for each of the four zones to carry out development works.Civic body plans to spend Rs.14.63 crore more
A special ward fund of Rs.2.20 crore would also be created to carry out works recommended by councillors. The budget, however, presented a deficit of more than Rs.16 crore. Mr. Nandakumar said the Corporation would wipe it with the help of better tax collection. Non-assessed/new buildings will be assessed for Property Tax. Water connection deposits and drinking water consumption charges will come from the more than 500 newly regularised layouts.
The increase in water charges by 50 per cent (from June) was also expected to help in wiping the deficit. By mentioning tax reforms, the budget also sought to remind the city that an upward revision was on the cards.The Corporation hoped to raise Rs.4.30 crore through garbage collection fee.A system of self-assessment of Property Tax by building owners would be introduced on April 1.More cash and cheque deposit machines would also improve tax collection. An interactive voice response system would become operational by the end of this month to enable people to know of their tax dues over phone.
The much talked about on-line tax payment was also expected to begin simultaneously.From the projected Rs.58 crore in the current financial year, the tax collection was expected to go up to Rs.83 crore next year through all these revenue mobilisation initiatives, Mr. Nandakumar said.The budget said that the outlay for installing high-mast lamps across the city had been increased by Rs.50 lakh for this year (from Rs.3.25 last year). Corporation Commissioner told presspersons later that “This year, it is an ‘outcome budget’ as per the guidelines of the mission. Coimbatore Corporation is the first local body in the country to present such a budget. As per this concept, all the schemes announced in the budget will have to be implemented. And, the budget has proposals that consider people’s requirements, after eliciting their views on development.”
After the budget presentation was over, the Mayor said discussion on it would be held on March 7. Councillors belonging to parties such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) said they were unhappy with the Corporation for announcing major schemes for years, but not implementing it
