In an unprecedented move, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) uploaded annual budget on its website at 11.24 pm on Thursday. The budget was to be presented before the media, which was the tradition. However, the budget was uploaded on the website without any prior intimation.
Notably, the BBMP is without a council as the local body elections are delayed in the state.
As per an announcement from the city administration, the budget was to be presented on Wednesday, however, due to disagreements on allocation of funds by a group of ministers and bureaucrats, it was postponed, said senior BJP leaders.
Over the last week, several meetings took place to sort out these issues. When the attempts to discuss the concerns failed, top civic officials - additional chief secretary Rakesh Singh, who is the administrator in the absence of an elected council, chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta and special commissioner (finance) Thulasi Madineni – met with Bengaluru’s BJP MLAs to discuss allocations.
On Thursday, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also holds finance and Bengaluru development portfolios, met both parties and finalised the budget, said a senior BJP MLA on condition of anonymity.
The BJP MLA said the city ministers, particularly minister for revenue R Ashok, minister for higher education CN Ashwath Narayan and minister for excise K Gopalaiah, were unhappy with the BBMP top brass over the allocation of funds. “The issues were sorted after the CM’s intervention,” the MLA said.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP MLA said the city ministers, particularly minister for revenue R Ashok, minister for higher education CN Ashwath Narayan and minister for excise K Gopalaiah, were unhappy with the BBMP top brass over the allocation of funds. “The issues were sorted after the CM’s intervention,” the MLA said.
{{/usCountry}}Since uploading the budget, the BBMP or the government has not called for an official press conference to address the questions around the budget. However, BBMP administrator Rakesh Singh, in a statement to the media, said: “The budget was released late since it was finalised late on Thursday and the budget had to be presented before the end of the financial year.”
The budget outlay for the year 2022-23 has been set at ₹1048,428.08 lakh, compared to ₹88,048.13 lakh in 2021- 22. The opening balance shown by the BBMP finance section is ₹558 lakh compared to ₹352 lakh in 2021- 22. The payments have been shown to be ₹1048,093.45 lakh.
As per estimates, around 46% of the expenditure of ₹4,838.26 crore is for public works, while 30% ( ₹3,148.12 crore) has been allocated to maintenance and 12%, which amounts to ₹1,234.72 crore, is for personnel expenses.
The budget lays stress on property tax collection, and a target of ₹1,500 crore as a minimum has been set.
As per Section 196 of the BBMP Act, the local body’s budget is supposed to be announced at least three weeks before the start of the next fiscal year. Accordingly, the budget should ideally have been presented by March 10. The state government recently issued a notification to the BBMP under the Karnataka Local Fund Authorities Fiscal Responsibility Act - 2003, stating that the budget will have to be drafted under the BBMP (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Rules) 2021.