MC General House meeting, Budget likely next week

The first meeting of the newly elected Municipal Corporation (MC) General House is expected to be held next week and the Budget will also be presented during the meeting.

Confirming the same, Mayor Inderjit Kaur said the General House meeting was expected to be held in the coming week and the Budget would also be presented during the same.

The draft for the Budget is being prepared. The Budget for the financial year 2025-26 is expected to be of around Rs 1,080 crore, which will be Rs 89.30 crore more than the previous year. Its main focus will be salaries of the employees and to complete pending projects.

Last year, the Budget of Rs 990.70 crore was passed. Since there was no MC House held last year, so the Budget was prepared by the MC and it got the same passed from the government.

Of the total Budget prepared this year, 69 per cent will likely to go into salaries while Rs 30 crore will be spent on recarpeting of roads, Rs 125 crore on streets of various colonies, Rs 2 crore on repair of bridges, Rs 25 crore on sewerage, Rs 5 crore on tube wells, Rs 3 crore on cleanliness of sewerage lines and Rs 9.80 crore on maintenance of water-sewerage lines. A discussion is going on and the Budget will be finalised in days to come.

Last year, the revenue target from property tax was Rs 140 crore but Rs 132 crore was achieved. For this year, the target is expected to be increased to Rs 160 crore while targets from other sources of income, including advertisement tax, building composition, change of land use, road cutting fee, lease and rent, tehbazaari, operation and maintenance cell, cow cess and fire NOC, are also expected to be increased.