The cash-strapped Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) presented an ‘optimistic budget’ with a surplus of Rs.169 crore for the fiscal 2013-14. While the total outlay is Rs.1,230 crore, the expenditure is pegged at Rs.1061 crore.
The corporation is all set to take a loan of Rs.75 crore from the Hudco. A loan of Rs.57 crore from the Housing Corporation is another major source of income for the corporation this year. The VMC, as reported in these columns, did not make any mention of revision in water charges in the budget.
The proposal to float bonds worth Rs.250 crore also did not find a place in the budget. The corporation, to augment its revenue, has chalked out plans to adopt revenue models to generate income from sports complexes.
The parks will be developed and maintained in private public partnership (PPP) model hereafter.
The corporation authorities also have plans to rationalise the revenues through advertisement tax.
The packages such as posh areas-Bandar and Eluru Roads -- will be devised and auctioned for better revenues.
Major breather
The advertisement tax collection, however, will be in the hands of private agencies as usual.
The plans are afoot to improve revenues through the shopping complexes.
The corporation will construct first and second floors in the complexes through good will collected.
The major breather for the corporation is professional tax collection.
The VMC will directly collect the professional tax from this year.
The demand is expected to be in the range of Rs. 17 crore to Rs.20 crore.
The VMC’s efficiency in tax collection hovered between 60 percent and 75 percent.
The corporation is planning to increase its tax collection by Rs. 15 crore to Rs. 20 crore this year. A GIS technology will be adopted in identifying the grey areas in property tax and vacant land tax collection.
