While the AAP MlAs attacked the local bodies in almost all the sittings of Delhi Assembly in the Budget Session so far, Finance Minister Manish Sisodia in his Budget speech announced a financial support of Rs 5,908 crore to BJP-led municipal corporations in 2015-16.
Sisodia said, “A total financial support of Rs 5,908 crore is proposed to the local bodies in 2015-16 which is 14.4 per cent of the total Budget.”
Even as he explained the details of the financial support being offered to the BJP-led corporations, leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said, “It’s only due to the pressure that we put on the Government.”
Taking view of the poor financial position of municipal corporations of North and East Delhi, Sisodia said, “We propose to give time to Corporations to set their houses in order by giving them moratorium on loan repayment. We will not follow the practice of previous regimes of recovering principal and interest of the outstanding loan liabilities in 2015-16 from the grants to the Corporations.”
The Finance Minister said the Government was committed to support the municipal corporations in every possible way. “The total financial support includes Rs 2,850 crore as a share in our tax collection in 2015-16, Rs 1,394 crore as share in Stamps and Registration Fee and one time parking charges. “For implementation of various developmental works under the sectors of Urban Development, Health and Education, we propose to allocate Rs 1,664 crore as plan funds to local bodies in this financial year,” he said.
Sisoda explained that the Government has released budgets to the municipal bodies in excess of what they otherwise used to receive from Delhi Government in earlier years. “We are in constant dialogue with them to encourage them to increase their resources and to rationalise their ever-burgeoning expenditures. We have also approached the Central Government to help us to help the municipal corporations,” Sisodia said.
The Finance Minister made an appeal to municipal corporations to streamline their functioning so that civic management does not suffer and people of this great city were not put to any hardship in the months to come.