budget analysis

[In Part 1 of this analysis, I discussed budget figures for 2020-21, and how resource mobilisation of the BBMP can be bettered. This concluding part is on suggestions to improve the finances of the civic body and how that can translate to efficiency.] A major source that the BBMP should tap for revenue -- after property taxes and leasing advertisement hoardings -- is to monetise its real estate through lease and rentals. Revenue from lease and rentals BBMP reportedly owns more than 20,000 properties across the city and most of them in prime locations. The rentals fixed are abominably low…

The budget for the FY 2020 – 21 has been presented through video conferencing due to the lockdown announced by the State Government.  Let us see the figures presented in the budget. The total budget is for Rs. 10897.58 crore which is 6.5% lower than the previous year’s budget. But the more important revelation in the budget document is the revised figures for the previous year 2019-20. The revenue receipts are just 60% of the budgeted figure. In other words, against the projection of Rs. 11,652.93 crore they have been able to raise only Rs. 7067.86 crore.  When its performance…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBBMP) on February 17th 2014 presented a Budget of Rs 7773.08 crore for 2014-15. However, there are not many new projects, while the emphasis is made on paying pending bills and continuing spill over works. Debt-ridden cash-strapped BBMP had come under fire in last July for presenting an imaginative Budget of Rs 8498 crore. Out of the expected Rs 8445,26 crore, BBMP could collect only Rs 3208.95 crore. This reduced the estimated expenditure for 2013-14 to Rs 3236.15 crore, and the pending payments and announced works in the last Budget spilled over to the 2014-15 Budget.…

If there is one politician who is most qualified to present a Budget for Karnataka, it is the Chief Minister himself - Siddaramaiah. While he has shown his ability to do the fine balance with not antagonising the public with more taxes, he has played to the gallery as far as keeping multiple vote banks in good humour is concerned. What should the budget aim to do? What are the key measures that should have been dealt with differently in the budget? Creation of more jobs across agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors should be the fundamental objective for the moment.…

“His form is ungainly — his intellect small —” (So the Bellman would often remark) “But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, Is the thing that one needs with a Snark. Lewis Carroll: The Hunting of the Snark About 10 years ago, four NGOs in Bangalore — Janaagraha, Public Affairs Centre, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies and Voices — got together to demand quarterly accounts from the Bangalore City Corporation. This was called the PROOF campaign, and it attracted a great deal of interest. PROOF became possible because a system of accounting for the Corporation had been…

Every budget talks about how Bangalore is an important metropolis and how its glory as an IT-BT capital has to be restored. In keeping with the current sentiment, the budget has discussions about garbage, roads, sites and investments. However there is only so much a city can take; so much a city can absorb; a limit to which it can cope. So, the question with every budget is that why are we so Bangalore-centric? Unpack the current Karnataka budget and you have a section dedicated to Bangalore which details out fly-overs, sky-walks, grade separators and garbage management. There is an…

Connectivity to Bangalore will be improved in the coming years, with the government formally announcing the willingness to form Bangalore Suburban Rail Corporation, in the state budget, a few days after the proposal getting formal approval. This has cheered many groups who have been batting for the commuter railway for many years. Other major announcement was the decision to separate ground water wing from the Mines and Geology Department and form a Ground Water Directorate. This looks important in the background of the Right to Water bill proposed to be tabled in the Parliament. “We should not avail loans just…

The new Budget has been announced. For the first Budget with limited time, it is indeed a good one. Our Chief Minister  has said in the introduction that he intends to provide every citizen the bare necessities of life, a house, water in the tap, power, a road to the house, sewage facilities, education for children and safety for people and property. Ultimately this is what every citizen looks forward to and what we have not been able to achieve in the past 65 years. He has stated that he will ensure that taxpayers’ money is well-spent with no wastage,…