Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has spent only Rs 177 crore for works budgeted for this fiscal, according to Janagraha’s Budget Performance Report.
The report on the BBMP’ budget 2017-18 stated the civic body has spent Rs 2,030 crore of the Rs 6,088 crore allocated for infrastructure development and maintenance. The report stated that over 91 per cent of the expenditure has gone towards clearing pending bills and spillover works.
Sapna Karim, head of civic participation, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, said the civic body has to spend Rs. 5,758 crore over the next six months to meet the budget targets..
The BBMP has raised 2,515 job codes between April to September 2017 worth Rs. 1,206 crore, of which Rs. 56 crore are works under Nagarottana Grants. Of the 2,515 job codes, a majority pertain to asphalting existing roads.
Janaagraha’s analysis also revealed that the BBMP has floated tenders for 13% of the Rs. 5,758 crore of budgeted expenditure that is yet to be spent over the next six months. It has raised 2,422 tenders amounting to Rs.925 crore. Of this, 1,760 tenders worth Rs. 755 crore are job codes for the current financial year. A majority of the tenders raised are towards road repair work. Nearly Rs. 200 crore is for old works.
Property tax collection
According to Janaagraha’s Budget Performance Report, the BBMP has managed to collect Rs. 1,723 crore, which is 66% of the budgeted property tax of Rs. 2,600 crore, in the first six months. This is said to be the highest in five years. The collection trends show that the annual tax collected is around 75% of the budgeted property tax in the last two years.
Analysis also revealed high dependence on grants from the central and State governments. The BBMP, whose main revenue source is property tax, received only 17% of the budgeted grants amounting to Rs. 729 crore in the first six months this year. The BBMP budget had included grants amounting to Rs. 4,250 crore from both the State and Centre.
