The Hans India: Hyderabad: Thursday, September 14, 2017.
The State
government is pushing the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) into
deep financial crisis by not releasing the funds allotted in successive
budgets. Funds totalling Rs 632 crore have been withheld by the State
government.
According to
the information gathered through Right to Information (RTI) Act by the CPI (M)
city unit, the government had so far released a mere Rs 40 crore under Stamps
Duty though as much as Rs 240 crore was to have been given to the GHMC under this head. The government did not
even release a single rupee under budgetary provision which include profession
tax, motor vehicle tax, property tax on government buildings and entertainment
tax.
According to
budgetary provision the government should have released Rs 41.25 crore under
profession tax, Rs 0.50 crore under motor vehicle tax, Rs 24.20 crore under
property tax on government buildings and Rs 34.25 crore under entertainment
tax. The 14th Finance Commission grants worth Rs 279.63 are also not released
during the financial year 2016-17.
CPI(M) city
secretary M Srinivas said the government has been “looting the civic body,” but
not releasing the budgetary allocations. He said for the first time in the
history of GHMC the government has withheld the funds for three consecutive
financial years. He said the funds totalling Rs 632 crore are pending with
government.
The CPI (M)
leader further said during the last year the government had transferred Rs 270
crore from GHMC budget to city RTC. Besides this, the government had also asked
the civic body to pay 15 per cent of its property tax collected to Hyderabad
Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
If this trend continued, the GHMC would not be able to take up any
development activities in the city.
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