Seventy three Urban Local Bodies across Telangana apart from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) need an estimated ₹40,720 crore over five years to improve infrastructure. The amount includes operations and maintenance cost for three years, according to a study taken up by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI).
Tasked by the first TS State Finance Commission, the draft findings of the study ‘Municipal finances and service delivery in ULBs of Telangana’ were presented before a workshop attended by municipal officials, experts in urban finance, representatives from voluntary organisations, research institutes and others on Tuesday.
Hyderabad, in view of its importance to the State, needs considerable investment support for roads, sewerage, drainage and other work. Also, expenditure should be enhanced on operations and maintenance to improve the quality of infrastructure like roads, parks, footpaths and others.
Stating that the financial situation of municipal bodies was “weak” and they could barely able to cover the cost of administration and operational maintenance, the study, presented by ASCI’s Srinivasa Chary, pointed out that the “capital investment required to address infrastructure needs cannot be financed with modest revenue surplus being generated by the ULBs”.
Service delivery
The ULBs need to have considerable investment over the next few years to fill the gaps that exist in service delivery with regard to water supply, solid waste management, drainage and the likes. The study calls for significant reforms to address the financial needs of the ULBs and improve service delivery such as efficient collection of property tax, vacant land tax and other non-tax revenues.
Land monetisation, promotion of public, private partnership, increase in assigning revenues from the State to ULBs, increase in grant funding from the SFC, strengthening property tax board, integrated spatial data management system and promoting citizen engagement in municipal management are the other measures mooted.
SFC chairman Rajesham Goud and member-secretary Suresh Chanda informed the presspersons later that a draft report of the study would be ready in a couple of months, while another study is being done by the Centre for Economic & Social Studies (CESS) on the financial position of gram panchayats.
The SFC would recommend the quantum of funds necessary for improving the conditions in municipal and panchayats after receiving the final reports by January next. “Telangana is witnessing rapid urbanisation and we feel local bodies could raise more resources without resorting to any hike in taxes by widening the tax base roping in properties outside the tax net, better collection of vacant land tax, parking fees, market fees and remittances from the government,” said Mr. Goud.
Earlier, the ULBs represented that property tax was the primary source that constitutes just 27% of revenues, and income from other sources was meagre, and hence it has been difficult to take up development activities. Proposals have been submitted to the government to release special grants to meet the expenditure for various work, they added.
Tourism Secretary B. Venkatesham was also present at the workshop.
