Local Bodies Dept approves Rs 366-cr Budget for Amritsar MC

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 6

The Local Government Department approved Rs 366 crore Budget (financial year 2020-21) for the Amritsar Municipal Corporation.

It’s for the first time when the department gave approval without conducting the MC General House meeting, in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. Last year, the Budget was Rs 451 crore.

As per the current financial year Budget, the MC has expenses of Rs 370 crore. The MC allocated Rs 69 crore for the development of the city. The civic body would spend Rs 10 crore on recarpeting and construction of roads. New water supply lines and sewer lines would cost Rs 8.97 crore. The maintenance and construction of sewer lines would cost Rs 5 crore. Similarly, Rs 5 crore has been allocated for the construction and repair of streets in the city. Slum improvement would cost Rs 50 lakh and the MC would buy various machines worth Rs 1.50 crore.

Parks would be maintained at a cost of Rs 50 lakh and another 50 lakh would be spent on street lights. The MC would spend Rs 50 lakh on implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission. A gaushala would be counstructed with Rs 1 crore. The civic body has allocated Rs 2 crore to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and Rs 2.50 crore has been allocated for miscellaneous expenses. The MC has to pay Rs 10 crore for repayment of loan to Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA). Around 17 crore would be spent on the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) projects.

As far as recovery targets were concerned, the MC failed to achieve the targets set by the General House last year. During the current year, the MC had a target to recover Rs 40 crore from property tax, but it could recover only Rs 11 crore. The target for advertisement was 12 crore, but it recovered Rs 2.80 crore. Similarly, the MC had set a target to generate Rs 40 core by sale of its properties, but could collect only Rs 1.82 crore. The water and sewerage wing collected only Rs 2.69 crore against the target of Rs 35 crore.

The MC failed to achieve targets of electricity tax, tehbazari, building application and composition fee, regularisation of unauthorised colonies, licence fee and additional excise duty.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said targets could not be achieved in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are focusing on recovery of taxes, bills and fees,” he said.

Targets missed

• The civic body recovered Rs11 crore against Rs40 crore from property tax in 2019-20
• The target for advertisement was Rs12 crore, but it recovered Rs2.80 crore
• Civic body had set a target to generate Rs40 crore by sale of its properties, but could collect only Rs1.82 crore
• The water and sewerage wing collected only Rs2.69 crore against the target of Rs35 crore