‘Smart’ Faridabad seeks monetary help from Gurgaon

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, October 17

Faridabad might have pipped Gurgaon in the fight for the smart city tag, but it couldn’t break free of its monetary constraints so far. It has reportedly yet again sought help of around Rs 100 crore from Millennium City to run its day-to-day affairs.

The Gurgaon civic body has not yet received any letter in that regard, but sources say the request has already been dispatched with support from the state government.

A similar request by the Faridabad authorities was turned down by the Gurgaon civic body around eight months ago.

“There are reports that a request for a monetary help has been made by Faridabad once again. This is not the first such request. We have been turning down their similar requests for the past three years because the district (Faridabad) has not repaid Rs 150 crore that it took as loan from us around five year ago. The outstanding amount has now grown to around Rs 165 crore.

The state government has been supporting them right from the beginning, but we won’t comply,” said Gurgaon Mayor Vimal Yadav. “Faridabad cannot sustain itself, but it was chosen for the smart city tag. After blatantly ignoring us, they now expect us to support them,” Yadav said.

Faridabad’s ex-mayor Ashok Arora said the state of financial affairs was not good in the civic body. “We have also come to know about the demand, but can’t say much as House is not in session. We have always said that we don’t have funds to pay even salaries, leave aside development,” he said.

The financial disparity between Faridabad and Gurgaon was highlighted in a recent report of Assocham. Gurgaon accounts for 70% of the total investment in the state, while Faridabad’s share had been less than 1% over the past 20 years.

Gurgaon’s share in the total VAT collection in the state has increased from 5.5% in 1990-91 to about 24% in 2012-13. On the other hand, Faridabad’s share has declined from 20 to about 17%. In terms of contribution to central sales tax, Gurgaon’s share has increased from 21 to about 26%, while Faridabad’s contribution has almost halved from 30.5 to 15%. Gurgaon accounted for over 54% of total entertainment tax collected by the state in 2012-13, while Faridabad’s share dipped from about 21 to 13% during the same period.