BBMP budget to pitch for populism; no new taxes

Bengaluru: The BBMP is all set to present its budget for the fiscal 2017-18 on March 25 and the outlay is expected to be around Rs 12,000 crore, with major emphasis on welfare schemes and construction of multi-level parking facility. With the assembly elections just a year ahead, the BBMP is expected to present a populist budget with no new taxes or cess.

The BBMP taxation and finance committee chairman, M. K. Gunashekar, aims to solve the problem of traffic congestion. He is likely to propose construction of multi-level parking facility at the markets many of which are encroached upon.He also emphasizes on the improvement of grave yards. Already, a study has been taken up in this regard and various measures have been chalked out, said sources.

The BBMP has been infamous for presenting inflated budget by showing inflated revenue inflow to its civic body – BBMP. Unfortunately, due to the unrealistic and inflated budget, the BBMP was able to achieve only 40 per cent of the budgetary allocation. Last year the BBMP had presented the budget with an outlay of Rs 9,353 crore. Although the BBMP had projected several welfare schemes, only providing mid-day meal to children has been implemented, said sources.

The BBMP has failed to achieve its target in terms of property tax, advertisement tax and fee for laying optical fibre cable. However, the saving grace is that the BBMP Taxation and Finance committee have cracked down on the defaulters by naming and shaming them. This has helped to mop up some revenue.

However, the BBMP has failed to make effective use of Global Positioning System (GPS) to bring all the properties under the tax net, added sources.This year too, the BBMP is likely to announce the welfare schemes and they may not translate into reality, sources said.