2019 Pune civic budget on Jan 17 to reflect fall in revenue due to demonetisation

Last year the then commissioner Kunal Kumar presented the draft budget of ₹5,397 crore and the final budget of Rs. 5,870 was presented by standing committee chairman Murlidhar Mohol

The civic budget for 2019-20 to be presented by Pune municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao on January 17 is expected to reflect a fall in revenue due to demonetisation and a slump in the realty market. The budget for the next fiscal is expected to be conservative.

This will be Rao’s first budget after taking charge as municipal commissioner. The draft budget presented by him will first be submitted to the standing committee, after which the standing committee chairman will present the final budget based on the commissioner’s draft budget.

Last year the then commissioner Kunal Kumar presented the draft budget of ₹5,397 crore and the final budget of Rs. 5,870 was presented by standing committee chairman Murlidhar Mohol.

According to officials, considering demonetisation and other market forces, the Pune Municipal Corporation has been getting lesser income from its building permission department in the last two years. The problems of the real estate business also affected the revenue of the PMC. The administrative sources confirmed that the building permission department is not able to achieve its target in the ongoing fiscal.

Vilas Kanade, head, property tax department head also confirmed that property tax department is trying to achieve maximum default payments though it is not possible to achieve the target given by the standing committee/

Considering these factors, it is expected that Rao would present a practical budget and set minimum revenue targets to all its departments for the next fiscal.