Team Herald
MARGAO: After much deliberation, the Cana Benaulim gram sabha on Sunday approved the budget for the year 2019-2020 with a Rs 1.92 crore more expenditure than the projected receipts which however turned into a surplus budget buoyed by the Rs 5.35 crore opening balance.
While the total receipts were projected at Rs 1.91 crore the total expenditure for 2019-20 were projected at Rs 3.83 crore thus in reality reflecting a deficit budget of Rs 1.92 crore.
The panchayat expected Rs 20 lakh each from the 14th Finance grant and Octroi. While the panchayat actually collected Rs 36.94 lakh as house tax it projected Rs 40 lakh as receipts under his head.
Similarly while it received Rs 12.72 lakh from houses given on rental it projected Rs 15 lakh as receipts under this head for the next financial year and having received Rs 92,355 as trade tax, the projection under this head is pegged at Rs 1 lakh.
Other major receipts projected are Rs 1 lakh from NOC for commercial fee, Rs 1.50 lakh from house tax transfer and Rs 15 lakh from construction license fee even though during the current year the panchayat collected only Rs 9.50 lakhs as construction fee.
The major expenditure as per the budget continues to be Administration where it is projected that Rs 55.20 lakh will be spent even though only Rs 15.12 lakhs was spent during the current year. Given the fact that the panchayat spent Rs 11.39 lakh on sanitation, public health and family welfare for the next year Rs 27.75 lakh is provided for expenditure under this head.
A whopping Rs. 1.86 crore is provided to be spent on public works even though during the current year only Rs. 2,200 were spent. As Rs. 3.94 lakhs wer spent on rural sanitation, a provision of Rs. 10.30 lakhs is made in the next year budget.
Even though streetlights maintenance and repairs is outsourced, the panchayat has provided Rs 25,000 for streetlight repairs and Rs 4 lakh for purchase of streetlights primarily because there are complaints that the agency does not respond immediately to complaints of streetlight failures.
The panchayat has also provided Rs 5.60 lakh for sports activities of which Rs 1 lakh is kept for the panchayat cup. Incidentally, during the current financial year the expenditure incurred for sports activities was Rs 1.56 lakh.
The gram sabha also decided to write to the authorities to clean the River Sal which is quite polluted and as the panchayat said it had already written to the Goa State Pollution Control Board about it without receiving any reply; they were asked to write once again to them.
Cruz Fernandes was assured that the outstanding amount from the contractor who had bagged the tender for market auction would be collected as soon as possible as it was admitted that the contractor has to still make some payments to the panchayat.
