*Poor revenue collection forces GHMC to go for overdraft *
Hyderabad, February 09: Poor revenue collection and several ongoing projects have forced the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to go in for overdraft (OD) from State Bank of Hyderabad, Lower Tank Bund branch. The corporation availed Rs 375 crore OD to make payments for developmental works taken up under various schemes. Revenue collections were not encouraging and at the same time there were over Rs 1,000 crore worth development works in progress. The corporation has already been delaying payment of bills to contractors of completed works for the last one month. "Developmental works are normally in full swing during December as it is the right season to do road works. At the same time, there is pressure from people's representatives and the state government to complete most of the works before the upcoming elections,'' a GHMC official said. For instance, the state government is insisting the Corporation to complete nearly 30,000 Indiramma houses before April, 2009. While the Centre has provided nearly Rs 140 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the GHMC has spent nearly Rs 200 crore of its own funds for housing programme for speedy completion of works. The balance amount would be sanctioned by the Centre after a couple of months. With the corporation's financial condition turning precarious, GHMC commissioner SP Singh reportedly instructed officials not to give any new sanctions till the end of financial year 2008-09. Global recession has also contributed for poor collections of various taxes in the GHMC jurisdiction. The corporation estimated nearly Rs 1,000 crore revenue through various taxes like property tax, trade licences, advertisement tax and other taxes. But till January 31, the GHMC could collect Rs 300 crore. Officials fixed Rs 491 crore target for collection of property tax by March 2009, but only Rs 275 crore was collected till February 7, 2009. Another Rs 220 crore has to be collected in the next two-and-half months. While the target for trade license fee is Rs 52.63 crore, only Rs 9.33 crore was collected so far. Similarly advertisement tax demand for the 2008-09 is Rs 10.03 crore, but till January 31, the collection was just Rs 25 lakh. The remaining amount should be collected in the next two months. Nearly Rs 8.92 crore of water cess dues are also worrying the municipal corporation. "Overdraft has been availed as there is a temporary liquidity crunch. As the Corporation has nearly Rs 500 crore deposits with the bank, there is nothing to panic about the financial position of the corporation,'' an additional commissioner of GHMC said. The corporation is looking forward to the disposal of building penalisation scheme (BPS), which is pending before court. If the court gives verdict in favour of the GHMC, it would get Rs 600 crore towards penal amount. Both BPS and layout regularisation schemes (LRS) fetched Rs 450 crore to the corporation --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Citizens' Action Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/citizens-action-forum?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
