The Hindu                     07.04.2013

Rs.200.08-crore budget for RMC

Steep fall in the surplus figure.

The Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation has approved a budget of Rs. 200.08 crore for the year 2013-14, which is in surplus by Rs.17.48 crore over the previous year.

There is, however, a steep fall in the surplus figure (by Rs.14.32 crore), which indicates drastic reduction in both revenue collection and fund flow from the State and Central governments.

The new budget accords top priority to drinking water, drainage, and public health. There are no fresh proposals. The corporation is again pinning hopes on Rs.300 crore RAY funds for urban housing.

Municipal Commissioner M. Jitendra released a copy of the budget proposals on Saturday at a press conference. The proposals were finalised and approved by Special Officer and Joint Collector Ahmed Babu a few days ago.

Mr. Jitendra said the total receipts in 2012-13 were Rs.168.28 crore and the opening balance then was Rs.31.80 crore.

He said, the RMC would spend Rs.182.60 crore during this financial year and major allocations would be for drinking water and drainage (Rs.27.88 crore), engineering works (Rs.13.33 crore), public health (Rs.13.55 crore), and general administration (Rs.6.91 crore).

The Commissioner said that that they expect to mobilise Rs.83.68 crore through property tax, vacant land tax, stamp duty surcharge, town planning, deposits and advances, entertainment, and advertisement taxes during the current financial year.

He said the double entry system, which was introduced last year, was yielding good result. When his attention was drawn to villages that would be merged in the RMC, the Commissioner said they would propose a supplementary budget after the merger of 21 villages.