shweta kamat
The Budget of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) that was presented on Monday saw development funds down by Rs 1 crore, and no new taxes imposed on the citizens, despite reeling under a huge deficit.
The Budget for 2015-16 was presented with a Rs 6.10 crore deficit, but the Corporation ensured that residents of Panjim are not been burdened with any additional taxes, but pinched commercial establishments including casinos.
The Budget size for the city, which is almost 50 per cent more than that of the year 2014-15, is estimated at Rs 34.66 crore. The income as well as the expenditure is slated at Rs 34.66 crore, excluding the Rs 6.10 crore deficit.
However, the Corporation has slashed development funds, by earmarking Rs 2.50 crore for this as against Rs 3.50 crore last year. These funds would be used for repair of roads, drains and new works. Also funds for solid waste management and other works related to JNNURM have been slashed by almost half. CCP has earmarked only Rs 50,000 for this purpose in its annual budget.
The major highlight of the Budget, presented by the newly-elected Mayor Shubham Chodankar, is income generation, with a hike in monthly sanitation and garbage collection fees for individual commercial establishments. Also people seeking residents’ certificate for obtaining foreign nationality would have to shell out an additional Rs 300 per certificate. CCP will charge Rs 500 per certificate now. “We have not imposed any burden on Panjimites,” CCP Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues said.
The fees for the casino operators have been almost doubled to Rs 10,000 per month from the existing Rs 5,000 per month. Exhibitions would be now charged Rs 15,000 per day as sanitation and garbage fee as against Rs 10,000 per day. The hotel waste collection (starred hotels to restaurants and small hotels) has been fixed between Rs 4,000 and Rs 11,000 per month per month with an increase of 10 to 20 per cent every year.
Commercial canteens attached to educational institutions and government offices will be charged Rs 600 per month with a 10 per cent increase every two years. The fees for slaughter houses have also been hiked to Rs 1,500 per month from existing Rs 900 per month.
For the first time, CCP has included showrooms, bars, sweet marts, spare part shops and ice cream parlous under this category, wherein they would charge a monthly fee of Rs 4,500 to four-wheeler showrooms, Rs 3600 to two-wheeler showrooms, Rs 100 to washing centres and Rs 250 to garages.
CCP has also decided to charge Rs 200 per month to all establishments located within the KTC Bus Stand, Panjim. Also the establishments in Caculo Mall, other than restaurants, would be charged Rs 700 monthly.
The Budget was passed unanimously with the Ruling and Opposition benches raising few objections.
The Budget shows income generation of Rs 34.66 crore, with major income generation heads being house tax (Rs 12 crore), construction licences (Rs 5crore), sanitation and garbage collection (Rs 2.5 cr) signboard/hoarding (Rs 1.4 crore), fair tax and exhibition (Rs 70 lakh), rent of buildings (Rs 60 lakh), etc. The other major income generating heads include pay parking, sopo from vendors, trade, income on investment and others.
On the other hand, payment to employees constitutes the major expenditure head. CCP has projected a total of Rs 23.49 crore on various payments to its employees, which includes salaries to regular employees (Rs 18 crore) and daily wages (Rs 3.4 cr). It also includes benefits to staff, staff welfare expenditure, pension and gratuity.
The Corporation has to pay over Rs 1.5crore in arrears of electricity and water bills of the municipal market. Apart from this CCP is reeling under a deficit of Rs 6.10 crore under five major heads – GPF/CPF Rs 55 lakh, grants Rs 2.77 crore, contingency expenditure Rs 1 crore and retired benefits Rs 25 lakh.
Rodrigues said that the deficit, which was pegged at Rs 10 crore in the last financial year, has been reduced to Rs 6.10 crore.
