The Hindu : A people-friendly budget, says Mayor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A people-friendly budget, says Mayor

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, FEB. 21. The Mayor, P.R. Ramesh, on Saturday claimed that the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) budget for 2004-2005 was "tax-less" and "people-friendly". However, the Opposition criticised it saying it was an "election gimmick."

"We have included programmes for all sections of society without levying any new tax," he told presspersons here after the budget presentation.

Replying to questions, he admitted that the budget did not have many new programmes. "The focus is on implementation of major projects that were given administrative approval last year. We have made sufficient allocations for all projects this time", he said.

The civic body planned to augment revenue of Rs. 300 crore from property tax by commissioning the Geographical Information System (GIS). This system would help in bringing all properties under the tax net, he said. Mr. Ramesh said he was confident that revenue from advertisements, improvement charges, building plan approvals, and sanction of trade licence would double this year. He, however, refused to specify whether the Solid Waste Management (SWM) and Infrastructure cess would be imposed on citizens this year. "We will levy it when the State Government frames rules and we expect a revenue of Rs. 40 crore here," he added.

The Opposition Janata Dal (Secular) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the BMP Council termed the budget as an "election gimmick" and as "old wine in a new bottle".

Syed Jameel Ahmed (JD-S) and D. Venkatesh Murthy (BJP) gave their reactions to the budget at separate press conferences.

While Mr. Jameel Ahmed said the budget was a "jugglery of figures", Mr. Murthy called it a "bundle budget prepared with an eye on the elections".

"It is an administrative report and not a budget. The programmes mentioned in the budget are our obligatory duties. Besides, the ruling Congress that harps on 33 per cent reservation for women has no specific programmes for them," Mr. Jameel Ahmed said.

Mr. Murthy said the HUDCO loan sanctioned by the Centre had been split into several categories without giving any credit to the sanctioning authority.

"As expected the budget has turned out to be a continuation of the ones presented in the past two years," he said.

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