Corporation passes deficit budget behind closed doors

In the absence of an elected council, the civic body passed the annual budget in its special council behind closed doors, but officials promised that the budget documents would be made public on Tuesday. “The documents will be uploaded to the Chennai Corporation website,” an official said.

Allocating funds for setting water ATMs in the city to dispense drinking water to the residents is among the highlight of the budget. “Funds also have been allocated for modernising more than 1,800 anganwadi centres in the city apart from installing automated dimming system for street lights in the city,” sources said.

Meanwhile, the capital receipt and capital expenditure during the period are estimated at Rs 1,722 crore and Rs 1,860 crore . The overall income, which includes other revenues, according to the Chennai Corporation budget, is estimated to be Rs 5,698 crore and overall expenditure would be Rs 5,743 crore. The total deficit would be Rs.46 crore this year. The Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash passed the budget estimates.

At the same time, the civic body had passed a deficit budget in 2018-2019 in which the revenue receipt and expenditure stood at Rs 3,228 crore and Rs 3,269 crore respectively. The capital receipt was Rs 1,853 crore and the expenditure was Rs 1,985 crore.

It is learnt that the capital receipt of Rs 1,722 crore would include the loan assistance to be granted by the German Development Bank (KfW) for the construction ofstormwater drains in Kovalam basin and other borrowings.

The revenue receipt comprises of revenue earned through property tax and other taxes, apart from the government allocation, which includes Chennai Mega City Development Mission Fund.