GHMC has massive deficit of Rs 600 crore

Hyderabad: Despite collecting Rs 1,050 crore as property tax, GHMC has a deficit of around Rs 600 crore at present. The corporation’s former mayor confirmed that before the earlier council had expired, GHMC was in surplus of Rs 580 crore.

The state’s highest revenue collecting corporation is finding it difficult to execute engineering works in the city, said an internal source. This is because the GHMC is busy fulfilling the ruling TRS government’s pet projects like the two-bedroom housing scheme for the poor. The state government has not issued any funds for the projects in its manifesto.

MIM MLC Syed Amin Jafri said, “After the term of the previous elected body expired in December 2014 and when the GHMC was under the control of the special officer for about 15 month, it had a surplus of Rs 580 crore, which was collected over a period of five years from its revenues. Subsequently in 2015-16, theGHMC had an income of Rs 2,129.52 crore and a capital of Rs 360.72 crore. In the same year, it incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,849.30 crore and a capital expenditure of Rs 1,222.95 crore, which is above its capital deposits. This led to deficits.”

“GHMC expected grants from the Central and state governments of about Rs 3,101 crore, but this was not given. It paid for the losses incurred during the Telangana agitation by supporting TSRTC, Rs 330 crore for the city’s damages and gave 15 per cent of its property tax income to the Metro Water and Sewerage Board. GHMC does not have money for its own expenditure as it is eating away its own money.”

Before the GHMC elections, CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that the state proposed to spend Rs 30,000 crore in the next five years to develop the city. Since the GHMC’s budget is around Rs 5,000 crore, the government planned to borrow Rs 25,000 crore from New Development Bank BRICS.