Ghaziabad civic body okays 1,417 crore budget

The executive committee of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation on Friday cleared the proposed budget for the 2022-23 financial year, which has a proposed expenditure of 1,417 crore as against an income of 1,337 crore.

The officials said that two other important proposals regarding the integrated parking management system (IPMS) and the new property tax structure have been proposed to be taken to the corporation board for further discussions.

The officials said that the budget proposes expenditure of 1,417 crore which will be spent on different segments such as cleaning, streetlights, water supply, maintenance work and horticulture, among others. They also added that the effective expenditure in 2022-23 will be around 900 crore.

“An amount of 517 crore has been carried forward from the previous financial year and we have already allocated work against this amount and the effective expenditure in the current financial year will be around 900 crore,” said Mahendra Singh Tanwar, Ghaziabad municipal commissioner.
Under the IPMS, the corporation plans to integrate all the 30 parking lots in its jurisdiction area with IT enabled infrastructure and the parking lots will be maintained by a single operator.

“The parking lots will be integrated with the control room of the corporation. Further, citizens will also be able to get live updates on parking availability through an app. Parking fees will be paid online. We have also proposed a base price of 7 crore annually for the purpose. The other proposal to implement the new property tax structure will also be taken before the corporation board,” Tanwar added.

At present, the parking lots in corporation areas are managed by private contractors and the fee structure is not IT enabled but manual.
According to the proposed tax structure, different colonies have been clubbed together based on per square feet rental values on carpet area and put under categories, which will determine the tax to be paid to the civic body.
Civic officials said the present tax structure has uniform rental values for all localities. As a result, the households in prime localities as well as the ones in lower-segment localities, end up paying the same amount of taxes.

According to official records of the corporation, the rental values for calculation of tax are the lowest among some of the major corporations across the state.
For instance, the maximum per square foot rate for taxation in Ghaziabad is 1.32, which is the lowest among 12 municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh, while the highest rate is 5.58.
The officials said that the lower rates have dented the tax revenues, which need to be hiked in accordance with the provisions of the UP Municipal Corporation Act,1959, and is likely to fetch about 150 crore of additional revenue every year.

Official sources said the proposal for the new tax structure has the backing of the UP Municipal Corporation Act and if there is any opposition, the proposal will be forwarded to the state administration, which in all likelihood, will give its approval.