Broke BBMP all set to present ‘surplus' budget?

The BBMP’s Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance committee has beendiscussing ways to bring in more properties under the tax net. File photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance has begun budget preparations in earnest. Committee chairperson K.A. Munendra Kumar claims that efforts were on to ensure that the 2012-13 budget is presented as soon as possible.

Revenue sources

The committee has been meeting heads of various departments to review the requirements and finalise the budget. The review meetings are likely to end this week. On Wednesday, the committee, along with Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy, Deputy Mayor L. Srinivas and Ruling Party Leader N. Nagaraju, reviewed the revenue sources.

According to highly-placed sources, the meeting discussed various revenue sources including property tax, optic fibre cables, advertisement tax and betterment charges. The meeting discussed ways to bring in more properties under the tax net. Yediyur councillor N.R. Ramesh recently raised this issue in the BBMP council.

Sources said that some welfare programmes, the benefits of which had not been availed of, would be scrapped. “Various schemes and programmes were introduced in the previous budgets. Some schemes have not been utilised at all. These have been identified and will be scrapped.”

‘Bogus budgets'

Meanwhile, the budget outlay this year will be more than that of 2011-12.

Sources said the committee will present a surplus and not a deficit budget. Both the 2010-11 and 2011-12 budgets had been slammed by the Opposition parties, who had labelled them as “bogus” budgets.

The BBMP had presented a gargantuan budget of Rs. 8,446 crore in 2010-11 and followed it up with a Rs. 9,315 crore budget in 2011-12.

Though Mr. Murthy had earlier claimed that a “realistic” budget would be presented, it seems unlikely, sources added.