Proposals for mopping up revenue and tapping new revenue resources in the wake of an unprecedented financial crisis were the highlights of the annual budget of the Kochi Corporation presented on Saturday.
Presenting the budget, Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod said that the civic body had been heading towards a serious financial crisis thanks to the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Since the introduction of the GST regime, there has been a significant drop in the revenue of local bodies as they have been denied entertainment tax and advertisement, which formed a major share of their revenue.
Major business proposals
Floating of municipal bonds and value capture financing are the two major business proposals mooted by the Deputy Mayor for augmenting revenue. The civic body has tied up with an empanelled agency of the Centre for floating the bonds. Value capture financing, the generation of extra revenue from certain areas of the city that enjoy some value-addition, was announced by the Centre last year.
The resources generated through the two modes will help the civic body meet the urban local body share for Smart City and other Centrally-sponsored projects, he said.
The corporation also plans to slap service charge on buildings owned by the Centre in the city and raise at least ₹8 crore that way. The law permits collection of 75% of property tax on these buildings as service tax, Mr. Vinod added.
The Kerala Municipalities Act proposes the collection of additional service tax for water supply, maintenance of drains, and street lights. The tax will be levied from the current fiscal and ₹10 crore will be raised, he said.
The processing of garbage at the solid waste treatment plant of the corporation at Brahmapuram will become expensive for the neighbouring local bodies as the processing fee will be doubled. Different local bodies are charged differently at the facility. The revision of tariff will make the corporation richer by at least ₹2 crore, he hoped.
The one-time amnesty scheme announced by the State government for regularisation of unauthorised buildings will benefit the civic body, as the former has offered to share half the revenue thus generated through the scheme.
The finance manager of the city hoped that at least ₹5 crore would come to the coffers of the corporation in that account.
