Vijayawada Municipal Corporation unveils budget with 1,481-cr outlay

Vijayawada: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has introduced budget with an outlay of Rs 1,481 crore income and Rs 1,474 crore expenditure for 2018-2019.  

Amidst protest by YSR Congress Party corporators and their suspension, Mayor Koneru Sridhar presented the budget while Commissioner J Nivas explained the revenue details to the members at the council hall here on Friday. Interestingly, the local body has introduced the surplus budget though it has been facing financial crunch from the past several years.

As per the details, corporation’s revenue is Rs 605 crore and expenditure is Rs 496.13 crore. According to income estimations, the corporation showed Rs 605.25 crore as revenue, Rs 816.38 crore as income and Rs 60.20 crore deposits and advances.  

As per the expenditure estimations, Rs 496.13 crore is revenue expenditure, Rs 884.74 crore is capital expenditure, loan repayments Rs 32.99 crore and Rs 60.20 crore deposits and advances.

The corporation has showed tax revenue of Rs 223.49 crore, including Rs 75 crore property tax with 37 per cent hike in the budget. The corporation has also estimated income of Rs 63.22 crore from water tariff, including Rs 25.63 crore sewerage charges. Similarly, the corporation will get Rs 85.78 crore from rents and lease charges.

The corporation proposed to collect Rs 20 crore vacant land tax, Rs 151.48 crore from property tax and Rs 50.61 crore from service charge. The local body will get compensation from Rs 32 crore profession tax. The VMC will collect Rs 10 crore from vendors by issuing licence fees. Rs 18 crore is estimated to be collected from building permit fee and Rs 13 crore from betterment charges and layouts.

The corporation needs to pay salaries Rs 242.15 crore from its revenue expenditure with 48.81 per cent hike. Likewise, Rs 58.12 crore was allocated for operational expenses, Rs 63 crore was allocated for road repairs, maintenance and Rs 61.95 crore was allocated for administrative charges.

Another interesting aspect in the budget is that the corporation has allocated Rs 60 lakh for corporators' tours and training purpose. The corporation presented iPads to all the corporators on the occasion. 

In addition, the corporation wants to spend Rs 70 lakh for digital class rooms in the 28 high schools, while Rs 25 lakh for traffic signal lights in the city. Rs 2 crore each was allotted for canal beautification and school toilets.