Gurugram: Municipal body approves budget for 2022-23 financial year

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) passed its budget for the 2022-23 fiscal, with a provision of around 2,700 crore for expenditure–an increase of 6.38% from last year–and around 3,000 crore for revenue–a decrease of 38.76%–during a special House meeting on Thursday. The budget will now be sent to the Haryana urban local bodies (ULB) for approval.

The MCG budget for the 2021-22 fiscal saw an expenditure estimate of 2,538 crore and a revenue estimate of 4,899 crore.

“After incorporating a few suggestions, the budget for the financial year 2022-23 was passed unanimously and will be sent to Haryana ULB for final approval. The budget has been prepared in a manner that ensures services and amenities for the public,” said Madhu Azad, mayor, MCG, who chaired the special meeting.

The proposed 2022-23 budget was tabled in an MCG House meeting last month, but its passing was deferred by councillors who said they did not have enough time to prepare.

According to officials, nearly 21% or 565 crore of the MCG’s total expenditure has been reserved for health and sanitation services. The fund allocation for this category also saw a jump of nearly 89%, as the MCG had reserved only 299 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal. MCG’s services for solid waste management, garbage clearance, sanitation, fogging, treatment of waste at the Bandhwari landfill, the construction of material recovery facilities, clearance of construction and demolition waste and animal birth control programmes are part of this category.

“In this fiscal, we aim to clear a significant share of the 2.5 million tonnes of legacy waste in Bandhwari.Using the waste-to-energy plantthe area, which is expected to become operational next year, we hope to clear legacy waste at the landfill completely by 2025. Hence, in the next few years, we will continue to allot more funds for this category,” said a senior MCG official privy to the matter.

MCG chief accounts officer Vijay Kumar Singla informed the House that capital expenditure for the 2022-23 fiscal has been kept at around 1,324 crore, while revenue expenditure has been kept at around 1,306 crore. Revenue expenditure refers to the money MCG spends running its offices, paying its employees,and maintaining and repairing civic amenities, while capital expenditure refers to the money the MCG will spend on civic projects and services in the upcoming fiscal.

Singla, who presented the budget before senior MCG officials and councillors at the Public Works Department (PWD) rest house, also explained the distribution of the main sources of income for the MCG.

He said around 1,100 crore will be collected as revenue via property tax, 10 crore via building plan approvals, 200 crore via FAR(floor area ratio) approvals, 50 crore via external development charges, 100 crore via advertisement fees, 600 crore via stamp duty, 100 crore from the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran, 200 crore via municipal bonds, and around 100 crore via land sales.