Now Greater Hyderabad is going to be a common capital of Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh for 10 years, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has come to a decision to seek funds from both governments.
On Monday mayor Mohd Majid Hussain at a special meeting of the GHMC council said, “As both the governments will be using the civic amenities available in the city, the corporation will urge both the governments to provide grants liberally in view of the additional responsibility.”
Introducing the budget for the 2014-15 financial year with an outlay of Rs.4, 599 crore, the mayor said Rs.567 crore has been billed for land and land improvement, Rs.69.50 crore for streetlights and Rs.274 crore for housing, Rs.833 crore for roads and pavements, Rs.335 crore for improvement of storm water drains, Rs.70.85 crore for bridges, flyovers and subways, Rs.127 crore for water supply and sewerage.
Majid Hussain further said, “The Corporation will raise Rs.300 crore by issuing tax-free bonds as suggested by the World Bank team which visited the city recently. This would help the GHMC get a higher credit rating as a viable urban local body.”
The corporation also estimates that it would collect about Rs.3,223 crore in the coming financial year with better realization of property tax, building permit fee, trade licence fee, , advertisement fee, garbage collection charges and other user charges. The GHMC is optimist to raise Rs.1, 250 crore from property tax alone, another Rs.100 crore from trade licence and Rs.90 crore as advertisement fees.
Lay emphasis on the GHMC’s commitment to develop all 150 wards, the mayor said the corporation has allocate Rs.1.5 crore in the core area (erstwhile MCH area) and Rs.2 crore in peripheral areas for each corporator to take up various works and these funds would be released in two instalments, he added.
As the floor leaders of different parties praised the budgetary allocation, they said it is the responsibility of the officials to make use of the earmarked amount.
According to Singireddy Srinivas Reddy, TDP floor leader in GHMC “GHMC has been increasing the budgetary outlay every year, but has been spending only 40 to 50% of it. In the financial year of 2013-14, out of the Rs.3, 800 crore outlay, only Rs.1, 500 crore was spent on works.”
BJP floor leader Bangari Prakash, although, complained that the corporation was targeting tax-payers by increasing the tax targets.
The TDP corporators raised objection as the committee resolutions should be approved after circulating the agenda and discussion, which was denied and approved by the mayor.
The mayor proclaimed that a meeting would be convened with floor leaders on tax incremental financing (TIF) soon before finalizing the works.