Khammam: The citizens and financial experts cautioned the members of Khammam Municipal Corporation governing body in spending the Budget in 2017-18. The KMC will have a Mega Budget the next fiscal and it will get Rs 462.78 crore from various schemes from the state and central governments.
The Budget with an outlay of Rs 543 crore will be presented in the Corporation general body meeting on February 28. This is the highest outlay after Khammam was upgraded as a corporation. Though the actual budget of 2017-18 is Rs 81.18 crore, the KMC will get another Rs 462.78 crore from various sources. These funds will be spent in the next financial year only.
The officials expect they will earn Rs 21.58 crore through property tax and another Rs 12.63 crore from mutations and registrations. It is assessed that another Rs 3.18 crore can be collected from rents of shops belonging to the corporation and another Rs 34 crore from town planning department, including the Land Regularisation Scheme.
P. Parthasarathy, an auditor, said, “Definitely, the KMC will get highest funds in 2017-18 but the officials will be cautious in spending the amount.” The KMC will get Rs 10.20 crore through non-planning funds Rs 428 crore as planning funds.
Interestingly, the officials wanted to show Rs 4.56 crore as surplus in the 2017-18 budget. The expenditure in the financial year is estimated at Rs 549.40 crore. M. Sundar Rao, a retired municipal official, said, “The programmes should be planned without lacunae and every rupee should be spent in a transparent way.”
He said that the corporators and officials should maintain balancing powers and they should act like a check on each other. He said that media, citizen charter and general public should act as watchdogs to check the nexus between corporators and KMC officials.
