Vijayawada citizens in for tax hike shock

Vijayawada (NTR district): The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is going to give a big shock to the Vijayawada citizens, which is all set to levy an extensive burden on citizens in the form of taxes. The YSRCP-led civic body has decided to earn huge revenue by hiking taxes from the next fiscal year. The Vijayawada citizens will be overburdened with taxes of around Rs 40 crore for the 2023-24 financial year apart from other charges. The VMC has estimated a revenue of Rs 197.59 crore from property tax for 2023-24 financial year and it is Rs 33 crore extra as compared to previous year. In 2022-23, property tax revenue estimation was Rs 164.65 crore.

Likewise, when compared to 2021-22 fiscal year, the upcoming year's property tax revenue hiked by Rs 86.66 crore against Rs 110.73 crore in 2021-22. Meanwhile, the VMC is also determined to get massive revenue by water charges and is estimated to collect Rs 47 crore in 2023-24 fiscal year. However, water charges estimations were Rs 45 crore only during previous financial year. The VMC has estimated to collect Rs 12.50 crore sewerage charges tariff for 2023-24 fiscal year. Besides, the civic body also decided to collect Rs 15 crore user charges (Collection of user charges from residents and business traders) and this budget estimations was (revised) Rs 12 crore. Rs 1,373 cr revenue income & Rs 149.9 cr revenue expenses

The civic body presented its annual budget on Thursday before the council meeting and it was approved unanimously. The VMC is expecting around Rs 1,373.26 crore revenue for 2023-24 financial year, of which Rs 859.12 crore is from revenue, Rs 444.43 crore capital income and Rs 69.71 crore deposits and advances. The revenue income (Rs 859.12) includes tax revenue, assigned revenue, town planning and other income, licence fees and administrative charges, sales and rents, market and remunerative enterprises, water supply and UGD charges and other incomes (010-Salaries etc).

Likewise, revenue expenses are estimated at Rs 1,419 crore and it includes general revenue expenses of Rs 697.76 crore, capital expenses Rs 634.31 crore and loan repayments Rs 18.12 crore, and advances and deposits Rs 69.71 crore. The VMC is estimating the total closing balance for the 2023-24 fiscal year at Rs 265.35 crore, excluding all revenue income and revenue expenses.

TDP Floor leader Nellibandla Bala Swamy criticised that this budget was totally false and nothing but juggling of numbers. He said that the YSRCP civic body was putting tax burden on the citizens. He pointed out that the VMC has allocated just Rs 5 lakh towards public health of Vijayawada, which has a population of around 12 lakh and added that the allocations were just 30 paisa for every citizen in terms of health allocations. YSRCP Floor leader Venkata Satya Narayana stated that their budget was citizen-friendly and informed that they hadn't levied any tax burdens on citizens. Stating that they have been developing the Vijayawada city since they came to power in VMC for the last 2 years, he stated that they were allocating funds to all the divisions irrespective of party.