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Chandigarh mayor seeks councillors’ suggestions on increasing MC’s own revenue
This comes a day after UT administrator refused ‘special grant’ to MC; while holding a review meeting of the MC and other departments of the Chandigarh administration over the budgetary concerns, the governor on Thursday directed the civic body to “cut down on annual expenses, increase revenue from own sources, and strategise to improve fiscal health.”
A day after Punjab governor and UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria refused to release any ‘special grant’ to the cash-strapped Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC), city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor on Friday asked councillors to suggest ways and policies to increase MC’s own revenue generation.
“As MC is facing acute shortage of funds, you are requested to submit your valuable suggestions or recommendations to the mayor’s office, within seven days, to increase MC’s own revenue generation so that the financial conditions can be improved,” the mayor said to councillors in a written notice.
Mayor Dhalor has called another special house meeting on November 4 to discuss possibilities of revenue generation from various sources, including estate receipts, property tax, rent from community centres, parking fee, advertisement fee, rent from taxi stands, water bills, vendor fee, receipts from enforcement wing, garbage collection, cow cess, receipts from birth and death registration or correction, and other revenue generation departments of the civic body. “Since the administrator directed MC to generate revenue from its own receipts and cut unnecessary expenses, a meeting has been called to discuss the situation,” the mayor added.
While holding a review meeting of the MC and other departments of the Chandigarh administration over the budgetary concerns, the governor on Thursday directed the civic body to “cut down on annual expenses, increase revenue from own sources, and strategise to improve fiscal health.”
At present, the civic body is grappling with a severe financial crunch, forcing it to halt all development-related works across the city since May this year. The financial crisis is so serious that it has even put on hold the already long-pending road carpeting work. Besides, uncertainty looms over the release of employees’ salaries in the coming months.
The Chandigarh administration has earmarked ₹560 crore as grant-in-aid against the demand of ₹1,651.75 crore for the current financial year. So far, the MC has already received ₹387 crore grant. The MC had estimated to generate revenue worth ₹350 crore from its own sources in this financial year. But from April 1 to September 30, MC could generate only ₹173.25 crore.
Mayor asks commissioner to recover property tax, water bills from defaulters
“Since the administrator told us to recover property tax and water bills from defaulters immediately to cope with the financial crisis, you are requested to provide a list of defaulters within seven days positively. Also, immediate action be taken against defaulters, including residents, shop keepers, industrialists or government bodies such as PGI, Panjab University, government buildings of Punjab, Haryana or UT secretariat etc. They may be given final notice to deposit the tax and water bills. In case they fail to deposit the tax on time, the process of sealing the said property and water meter be initiated with immediate effect as per rules,” the mayor wrote to commissioner, adding that names of defaulters be shared with the media so that they can deposit their dues well in time.
