Nagpur: Setting right the priorities, the civic budget for the year 2017-18 presented by Sandip Jadhav, Chairman of Standing Committee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Saturday, focuses on completion of ongoing projects instead of announcing new ones.
The budget with a projected income of Rs 2,271.97 crore, has amnesty schemes for defaulters of water and property taxes. The amnesty schemes will be implemented between July 6 and July 15, 2017. Standing Committee chief did not propose new tax burden on citizens in the budget, but expected to raise NMC’s revenue through various sources like property tax, market tax, and Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be rolled out across the country from July 1.
The civic body will spend Rs 2,271.71 crore in financial year 2017-18. The local body expects Rs 740 crore as Government assistance against Local Body Tax (LBT). However, State Government will stop financial assistance against LBT after GST roll-out from July 1.
Factoring this, NMC budget expects financial assistance of Rs 1,065 crore under GST from this year. The civic body expects financial assistance of Rs 1,090 crore from Central and State Governments in 2017-18. Further, it expects funds under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City projects, as also dues of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).
Jadhav presented a copy of the budget to Nanda Jichkar, Mayor; Deepraj Pardikar, Deputy Mayor, in the special general body meeting held on Saturday. The discussion on budget will be held on June 19 at 10 am. Ashwin Mudgal, Municipal Commissioner, also was present in the meeting.
2.50 lakh new properties in city
In his budget speech, Sandip Jadhav said that the civic body had conducted survey of unassessed properties since February 18, 2016. The survey revealed that almost 2.50 lakh new properties had come up in the city. From 2017-18, NMC will start new regime of property tax. The civic body is expecting income of Rs 392.19 crore from property tax. At the same time, Jadhav proposed amnesty scheme for defaulters of property tax.
Earlier, Property Tax Department had announced amnesty scheme offering waiver of 90 per cent of penalty amount. The scheme had received lukewarm response from citizens. However, Standing Committee chief received several representations expressing willingness of the people to pay the balance amount. Hence, he decided to launch amnesty scheme for 10 days — from July 6 to July 15 — to facilitate people to pay actual amount of tax along with only 10 per cent penalty.
Penalty on water tax default to be waived
Jadhav announced one-time settlement scheme for defaulters of water tax in the budget presented on Saturday. NMC has decided to waive the entire penalty on water tax default upto March 31, 2017. The defaulters can pay the amount of bill between July 6 to July 15 to avail benefit of the scheme. NMC is expecting income of Rs 170 crore from collection of water charges. The uninterrupted water supply scheme will provide 24×7 water to citizens, repeats the budget. Orange City Water (OCW) and NMC have laid almost 534 kms length of water supply pipeline network and changed pipelines of almost 1,38,675 houses in the city. Water distribution network has been completed in several areas. Also, strengthening of Pench-II Water Treatment Project is nearing completion. Major repair work of 17 overhead water storage tanks and 19 minor repair works have been completed.
NMC preparing new development plan
NMC has started preparing the new development plan for the city for next 20 years. The present plan will become defunct in the year 2020. Therefore, Town Planning Department has initiated the process of new plan. The local body has decided to separately deposit the amount received from sanctioning of building plans, for disbursement of compensation for acquisition of reserved land. As per the Government directions, the civic body will regularise illegal constructions in the city to generate revenue. The release of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) also will pave way for generation of revenue for Town Planning Department. The department’s expected income in 2017-18 was pegged at Rs 101 crore by Jadhav in the budget. Registration of hawkers
The civic body is expecting income from Market Department through registration of hawkers. The report of the committee headed by Pravin Datke, former Mayor, in this regard is expected this month. Market Department will register 40,000 hawkers in 2017-18. The department is charging Rs 228 per hawker for registration. Identity-card and registration certificate will be provided to each hawker on payment of Rs 772. Town Vending Committee has decided to collect Rs 600 per month as charges from the hawkers in the city. This will improve recovery of Market Department upto Rs 13.50 crore. NMC is expecting income of Rs 10 crore from Advertisement Department. Estate Department will lease out conservancy lanes on premium to plot-holders and earn almost Rs 14.50 crore in this financial year.
Construction of cement roads
NMC has proposed works of Rs 300 crore in Phase-III of cement road construction in the city. The works in Phase-I are likely to be completed in current financial year. The civic body has received Rs 100 crore for works in Phase-II of cement roads. The local body has allocated Rs 10 crore for new development plan roads from Morris College to Nagpur University. Already, Maharajbag Road work has been undertaken by NMC. Public Works Department of NMC will mix waste plastic in bitumen during asphalting of roads. Each corporator will receive Rs 15 lakh for road works from NMC.
LED streetlights
NMC will replace 1,25,000 old streetlights with new LED lights in this financial year. Presently, the street-lights are in pathetic condition and Electrical Department of NMC has proposed to replace old cables, electric poles, feedback panels and others with new ones. This work will require almost Rs 59 crore. The electric light fittings on Metro Rail route and Ring Road will require Rs 28 crore. LED lights will save 70 per cent energy and Rs 75 crore. NMC will create infrastructure of Rs 218 crore and save a huge amount of Rs 60 crore in next two to three years. The civic body will also remove electric poles causing problems for smooth flow of traffic, and this will require Rs 50 crore.
