The ruling BJP in the Mangaluru City Corporation council presented a ₹157.43 crore surplus Budget for 2024-25 on Tuesday.
The receipts were estimated at ₹820.87 crore while the expenditure were pegged at ₹956.01 crore. With the opening balance of ₹292.57 crore the savings were estimated at ₹157.43 crore.
While presenting the Budget, Varun Chowta, chairman, Standing Committee for Taxation, Finance and Appeals, said that water consumers will be able to pay their bills through digital payment applications like Google Pay and PhonePe soon.
An online system will be implemented for booking Kudmul Ranga Rao Town Hall, Ambedkar Bhavan and grounds of the corporation for organising functions.
A web application will be introduced for making tenants of the corporation pay their rents to the civic body online. The web application will also help to maintain the digital data of tenants.
In addition, online system will be introduced for issuing building completion certificates and for making payment for installing hoardings and displaying banners.
He said that measures will be taken to open a TDR (transferable development rights) Bank in the civic body to maintain a pool of TDR to enable property owners to sell their TDR and for others to purchase them without any hassle.
He said that ₹75 lakh has been reserved for the operation of ‘tiger gang’ to evict such streetvendors who operated in non-vending zones.
The chairman said that to increase the revenue collection it has been proposed to introduce commercial rates for supplying drinking water to paying guest accommodations and service apartments.
A bylaw will be framed to fix rentals for those who put up stalls during ‘jatras’ in the city. The rentals for hiring Kudmul Ranga Rao Town Hall and Ambedkar Bhavan and using the corporation’s swimming pool will be revised, he said.
Mr. Chowta said that live bid/open bid system will be introduced while auctioning shops at commercial complexes and market buildings of the corporation by deviating from the closed bid system. It will enable more bidders to participate in the auction.
He said that by switching over to the new solid waste management handling system recently, the civic body was spending ₹1,999 per tonne of waste. Earlier it was spending ₹4,388 per tonne of waste. With this the civic body is expected to save ₹22.76 crore per annum in the first year.
Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur presided over the special meeting called to present the Budget.
