Reiterating its demand for a White Paper on the financial condition of Mangaluru City Corporation, the Opposition Congress in the council said on Thursday that the Budget for 2023-24 lacked focus on augmenting its revenue.
Leader of the Opposition Naveen R. D’Souza said the city had many low-lying areas which submerged during monsoon. The Budget did not make any mention of providing relief to people living in such areas. There is a need to introduce single-window system for issuing licence to construct houses and other buildings. The Budget did not mention anything about it, he said.
Mr. D’Souza said the Budget did not mention about the steps that would be taken to rationalise the property tax revised recently without bringing it to the notice of the council. He said the civic body should maintain the unit-wise account of income and expenditure. For example, if a market is commissioned it should have clarity on the revenue earned (in terms of rent) from the market and the expenditure involved in its maintenance. It applied to all its assets.
He said the civic body owed huge bills to contractors. The move to purchase own vehicles for solid waste management is not a wise idea as it will not be possible for the civic body to maintain them.
A former Mayor and Congress councillor M. Shashdhar Shetty said the Budget lacked clarity. The ‘demand, collection and balance’ of funds are not clear, he said.
Congress councillor A.C. Vinayraj said the Budget did not mention how much fixed deposit will be kept in the name of a girl child under ‘Mangaluru Sri Lakshmi Yojanae’ as part of Beti Bachao. Other than the routine revenue generation accounts, the Budget did not mention anything about new schemes which will bring revenue to the civic body, he said.
Many ruling party councillors termed the Budget as excellent.
