Rs 169.93 cr VMC surplus budget surprises all

Vijayawada: The 169.93 crore surpuls budget presented by the officials of the Municipal Corporation for the year 2013-2014 has come in a big surprise for the people of Vijayawada. Amid speculations on the budget presentation, the officials of the Municipal Corporation have finalised and also presented the budget for the financial year 2013-2014 on Thursday. The Corporation has announced Rs 1230.03 crore budget estimates against last year's Rs 1000.61 crore and they showed the current year's expenditure as Rs 1061.00 crore. The corporation has estimated Rs 350.08 crore income under revenue head and Rs 808.85 crore under capital head and Rs 71.99 in the form of deposits and advances. In same way, it has shown revenue expenditure at Rs 345.17, Rs 612.05 as capital expenses, Rs 29.98 for loan replacement and deposits and advances Rs 73.81 crore. The corporation, obviously has neither taken into consideration the popular will of the people against taxation, nor the prudent advice of financial experts. The officials have relied on heavy taxation for additional resources and taxes remain the main source of income from revenue head.They estimated that 43 per cent of revenue comes from taxes. The officials of the local body surprisingly showed an income of Rs 35.94 crore from water supply against their own recent statement, in which they had announced mere Rs 8 crore income from water supply and pojected an expenditure of Rs 20 crore. They did not give any clarity on water meters installation also. Experts, however, say that the income shown on water supply in the budget clearly indicated that they would implement water meters soon. The officials showed that Rs 139.34 crore was allocated for salaries to the employees. The operational expenditure is the second highest of Rs 123.58 crore under revenue expenditure. The political parties and people's representatives are yet to react to the budget estimates.