MCD budget proposals for 2025 unlikely to be presented before deadline

If the MCD commissioner is unable to present the budget, MCD works will be embroiled in yet another logjam, officials said

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner Ashwani Kumar is likely to be unable to present the municipal budget proposals for the next financial year before the deadline of December 10, senior officials said on Monday, pointing out that the formation of the standing committee — which controls the purse strings of the civic body — is still in limbo, more than two years after the corporation elections were held.

A senior MCD official said that no meeting of the house of councillors has been scheduled for Tuesday. (HT Archive)

A senior MCD official said that no meeting of the house of councillors has been scheduled for Tuesday. “Any meeting would require a notice of at least 72 hours. No such notices have been issued. The budget needs to be presented before the standing committee which is not in place,” the official added.

The proposals are said to be worth around ₹17,000 crore, officials said.

According to provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, the commissioner is expected to present budget estimates before the standing committee no later than December 10. These estimates are later amended by the panel, and forwarded to the house of councillors to be finalised.

If Kumar is unable to present the budget, MCD works will be embroiled in yet another logjam, officials said. Last year, MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti had directly submitted the budget before a special house meeting on December 9 in a bid to bypass the budget presentation requirement. The budget process to finalise various municipal tax rates , the Act says, must culminate before February 15 in the house of councillors.

BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the budget was presented before the house meeting as an exceptional case under extraordinary circumstances as the standing committee. “MCD cannot repeat the same logic every year. The AAP is now allowing the formation of the standing committee. Last year, the members had not been elected but all 18 members are now in place and budget should be presented before the standing committee,” he said. The BJP had written a letter to the MCD commissioner on November 24 demanding that the budget be presented before the standing committee and not directly before the house.

The AAP said in a statement on Monday: “For the first time, the MCD commissioner has refrained from presenting the budget in the house — a stark departure from tradition. So far, in the absence of the standing committee, the budget has always been presented in the house. It raises serious questions whether the BJP is pressuring him to withhold the budget?”

The corporation is likely to see deviation from previous practice as all 18 members of the standing committee have been elected, but the process to electing the chairperson remains pending — the then mayor Shelly Oberoi on September 29 challenged the poll in the Supreme Court, a senior official said. The Supreme Court on October 4 verbally expressed reservations about the manner in which the Delhi lieutenant governor issued directions for holding the elections for the sixth member of the standing committee.

“The proposal to hold the presentation of budget will be sent to the municipal secretariat, which is expected to forward it, but since the standing committee is still not in place, it is unlikely to see further progress and may be returned back. It is a legal grey area. The final outcome may depend on the outcome of the standing committee case pending before the court,” a senior MCD official said, on condition of anonymity.

A second official associated with the budget-making process said that the final decision about how to go forward with the budget may end up in the apex court. “The Supreme Court may grant the power of standing committee to the commissioner for completion of this statutory requirement, or decide the outcome of the standing committee formation,” the second official said.

To be sure, when a similar situation arose last year, the then MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti had managed to present the budget directly in the house of councillors on December 9.

In addition, last year, the discretionary fund for mayors was raised from ₹10 to ₹500 crore by transferring the maintenance funds from various other sectors.

“Since various heads of budget allocation in matters related to development works of approved colonies, parks, unauthorised regularised colonies, rural and urban villages were reduced to nil, works have been affected this year,” the first official quoted above said.