Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation which paints a happy future in its recent budget is however, staring at a lack of money due to a mismatch between its rapidly rising expenditure and slowly growing income. The Opposition blames that the budget is a bloated one and the Corporation could run into trouble if there was even a minor shortfall in the central-state budget.
The actual income of the Corporation in the past years has not been printed in the budget. However, taking a cue from the 2014-15 income, the Corporation cannot spend anywhere closed to the projected Rs 1,248 crore expenditure. For instance, the Corporations’s actual income from property tax was Rs 30.8 crore in 2014-15. However the budget estimates that in 2016-17 it will be Rs 60 crore.
“The budget revolves around unrealistic expectations as the government has decided to do away with property tax for houses below 600 square feet this year. Even if a hike in tax for houses above 2,500 square feet is considered, a 100 per cent increase in tax revenue from 2014-15 is unrealistic. At the same time, there is no denial that expenses have increased manifold,” said Thiruvallam councillor Nedumam Mohanan.
However, the entertainment tax of Rs 54 crore collected in 2014-15 is projected to increase to Rs 85 crore in 2016-17. Similarly the Rs 28 crore professional tax collected in 2014-15 is projected to increase to Rs 37 crore this financial year. “The Corporation should increase its own fund by utilising its massive land assets that lie as dead assets. For instance, the Corporation has half an acre sea-facing property at Kovalam. Public facilities should be started here to increase revenue,” Mr Mohan points out.
Meanwhile, experts said that the projections in the budget were based on assumptions that the state government would take steps to allow civic bodies to collect more taxes as per the recommendation of the 5th pay Commission.
