GHMC treasury has 43 crore only!

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is heading towards severe financial crisis with just Rs 43 crore in its treasury and delay of funds from the State government. The civic body has to pay Rs 110 crore per month towards salaries and pensions. Besides this, the government has asked the corporation to raise loans worth Rs 3,500 crore for major infrastructure projects.

According to GHMC official, the civic body relying on the State government funds had already embarked on routine development works including road repairs, city sanitation maintenance, street light repairs and other related issues. Apart from this, the corporation had spent a whopping amount on festival arrangements including Ganesh immersion, Bathukamma and others. The corporation depending on the governmentfunds (13 finance commission grants of Rs 220 crore and stamps duty Rs 120 crore) had spend additional Rs 400 crore during the last one month.

When queried about the same, a senior GHMC official told The Hans India that the civic body has only Rs 43 crore in its treasury. He said even though the government had released Rs 44 crore during the last month, they are yet to be credited into GHMC's account. The official also said the government has been promising to release Rs 170 crore for the past two months but, it just remains on paper.

The GHMC official said the corporation has to pay Rs 110 crore towards salaries and and pensions. He said delay in government funds will not only leave GHMC bankrupt butthe corporation will have no funds to pay monthly salaries. Despite this, the government has asked the GHMC to raise Rs 2,500crore funds in the form of Rupee Term Loan (RTL) and Rs 1,000 crore in municipal bonds in order to take up the infrastructure projects.

"When the annual income of GHMC is only Rs 3,000 crore it would take a minimum of Rs 20 years to clear Rs 3,500 which has been raised through bonds and loans."