The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is pinning a lot of hopes on professional tax, Hudco loan of Rs.75 crore, and State government loan of Rs.57 crore to improve its financial health.
The authorities also hope that the VMC will have a “respite” if the Union Bank of India loan is cleared and the JNNURM projects are closed.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Municipal Commissioner G.S. Panda Das said the VMC required Rs.152 crore to “close all the JNNURM projects” by March 2014. Of this, Rs.75 crore would be Hudco loan and Rs.57 crore State government loan. The balance of Rs.20 crore would have to be pooled by the corporation from other sources, he said.
The VMC was expecting a revenue of Rs.10 crore to Rs.15 crore from the UGD and water connections this year. The professional tax would fetch Rs.27 crore. The corporation was hiring the services of a retired Commercial Tax officer to improve the professional tax collection.
UBI loan
The UBI loan would be cleared in another one and half years. At present, the VMC was shelling out Rs. 2.47 crore per quarter towards UBI loan. The collection of beneficiary contribution was also improving. The VMC could collect Rs.3.8 crore in last three months. The beneficiaries were asked to pay their contribution in lump sum for allotting the houses under the JNNURM, he said.
The JNNURM projects, hitherto, had an effect on the general funds. The closure would ease the burden on general funds and help in streamlining the statutory payments/liabilities such as ESI and EPF, he hoped.
