Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is facing a financial crunch, which may affect salaries of civic employees if the civic body does not set priorities for development works.
PMC has started feeling the pinch due to the revenue loss as the lockdown has been extended. The civic body has three major sources of revenue - property tax, Goods and Services Tax (GST) aid from the state government and the building permission and development charges.
PMC needs at least Rs 2,000 cr for revenue expenditure
Speaking to Sakal Times, a senior PMC official said, “PMC spends Rs 80 crore on the salaries of its employees per month. Our revenue expenditure is around Rs 2,000 crore per year. We have to take an early decision and set priorities for development works. Failing which, we may face challenges while paying the salaries of our employees.”
He said, “We will have to curtail money being spent on projects, which we are planning but have not started yet. We have to complete only priority project works first, which we cannot stop such as water supply, drainage, health, road repair, solid waste, etc.”
Another official from PMC’s account department said, “Due to the COVID-19 epidemic and extension of the lockdown, the State will give some amount of (GST) subsidy instalment. We are not getting revenue from property tax as compared to last year collection. Development charges, sky and sign department revenue collection has almost stopped for the past one month. “
GST UNCERTAINTY
The State government transfers the GST aid to all municipal bodies every month. The State gives around Rs 2,000 crore to PMC as the GST aid. It is a major portion of revenue.
According to the PMC accountant department chief, PMC received the instalment of March. The aid instalment of April is around Rs 135 crore. But they got only Rs 50 crore in the second week of April so far. The State has not communicated about the remaining amount.
NEGLIGIBLE PROPERTY TAX COLLECTION
PMC property tax department emailed tax bills to property taxpayers for the year of 2020-21 from April 1. In April, PMC collected only Rs 94 crore. Of the 10.50 lakh taxpayers, only 98,400 paid tax till date. Last year, PMC had collected around Rs 238 crore in the same period, and over 2 lakh people had paid taxes in April.
DEVELOPMENT CHARGES COLLECTION ALMOST STOPPED
PMC is not getting the building development charges as construction activity has been completely stopped, which is a major revenue source for the civic body.
PMC gets maximum development charges in March and April as compared to other months. However, construction activity has completely stopped in these two months, which has directly affected PMC revenue. Building permission department contributes over Rs 700 crore revenue by collecting development charges.
