GHMC Presents Rs 5,500 Crores Budget

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Wednesday presented a budget of Rs 5,500 crores for the financial year 2015-16.

Presenting the budget, GHMC Commissioner & Special Officer Somesh Kumar informed that the revenues and receipts of GHMC for the year 2015-16 had been estimated at Rs 6,396 crores, and after the mandatory revenue surplus of Rs 846 crores, the budget had been fixed at Rs 5,550 crores.

The main components of the GHMC receipts are Property Tax (Rs 1,200 crores), Surcharge on Stamp Duty (Rs 300 crores), Town Planning Fee (Rs 600 crores) and Professional Tax (Rs 100 crores).

The state government has already allocated Rs 628 crores to the GHMC for schemes including Slum-Free Hyderabad (Rs 250 crores), MMRTS (Rs 21 crores) and Charminar Pedestrian Project (Rs 1 crore). The proposed BPS and LRS are expected to contribute Rs 800 crores to the GHMC.

The GHMC is planning to meet its plan with the help of state government, Kumar said. The corporation is also expecting to get Rs 467 crores from the central government under various schemes/programmes including the 13th and 14th Finance Commission Grants, Swachch Bharat and Sardar Patel Housing Yojana.

The draft budget proposal is Rs 5,550 crores, with revenue expenditure proposed at Rs 1,732 crores and capital expenditure at Rs 3,818 crores. The revenue expenditure which comprises of regular works and GHMC establishment is Rs 700 crores. Health & sanitation spend has been given importance, and increased to Rs 500 crores. Other major components of the revenue expenditure include street lighting (Rs 225 crores), city infrastructure maintenance (Rs 192 crores) and urban community development (Rs 46 Crore).

The capital expenditure which comprises of new and major infrastructure works is estimated at Rs 3,818 crores. The main components of capital expenditure are road infrastructure (Rs 1,956 crores), amenities & services (Rs 605 crores), slum-free Hyderabad (Rs 537 crores), public conveniences (Rs 283 crores), green Hyderabad (Rs 150 crores), environment + heritage + culture + tourism (Rs 130 crores) and smart Hyderabad city (Rs 90 crores). (INN)