CCP turns a ‘pauper’

Presents Rs 12.78-crore deficit budget

VI Pay and perks put on hold

BY A GT REPORTER

PANJIM: It’s finally final. The Corporation of City of Panjim (CCP) has presented a whopping Rs 12.78-crore deficit budget, forcing it to wake up to the reality of its empty coffers and revert its decision to pay its employees VI Pay Commission salaries and perks.
CCP Commissioner, Sanjit Rodrigues made the budget presentation at the meeting of the CCP yesterday, and Mayor, Carolina Po told the media after the meeting that the decision to implement VIth pay commission is being reverted due to the huge deficit in the budget.
Po said: “But, now we are working on improving our financial position and are also seeking more government funds. We will do it as soon as possible.”
Po said the Rs 12.78-crore deficit include the VI Pay Commission burden.
“The implication of the VIth Pay Commission recommendations is about Rs 4.5-crore. With the decision not to pay the hikes, the deficit too will reduce to around Rs 8-crore,” she said, adding that the poor financial health of the corporation is not a new story.
Facts revealed during yesterday’s meeting indicated that the CCP could wipe out this budget deficit if it only mops up arrears of payments to it from defaulters. The outstanding revenues include Rs 7.67-crore in House Tax alone, Rs 38-lakh from trade and occupancy licences and Rs 36-lakh from signboard fees.
New lease deeds agreements in the market complex, introducing pay parking, pruning its labour/staff strength and asking the government to hand over Octroi collected in the city, are some of the measures proposed by Po at the meeting to raise revenues for the civic body. Corporator Avinash Bhosale said ‘fiscal indiscipline’ was the reason for the precarious financial health of the civic body.




“We have failed to get funds from JNNURM whereas KTC managed. Now we have to increase our revenue through taxation. Otherwise, CCP could collapse as we are on the verge of bankruptcy,” Bhosale said, adding that the budget has no provision of funds for development.
‘IFFI a burden’
Some corporators also said events like IFFI are a burden on the city and that some share of the revenues, even from casinos which operate from the city side banks of Mandovi river should come to the Corporation.
Po defendsCorporators
Asked about the scams involving Corporators, Po sought to push the blame on CCP staff.
“The CCP staff is equally responsible, as they promoted it. They should have objected. Now, the Commissioner is enquiring into this matter.”
Earlier during the meeting Po also mentioned that there is revenue loss due to illegal shops. One corporator claimed that a branded showroom was functioning without a trade license.
Standing Committee
The stalemate over the composition of the all-important standing committee remained unresolved with the ruling side not yielding any ground.
Veteran corporator, Surendra Furtado, said the committee had only the ruling side represented on it for the past three years and therefore decisions taken by it are null and void.
Bhosale, however, claimed that there was no need to reconstitute this panel as Section 44 of the CCP Act was used to constitute it. “As per the rules, there’s no need to reconstitute it,” prompting the Commissioner to say he would convey this to the government. The opposition has been at loggerheads to reconstitute this panel and when they raised it before the state government, the Urban Development Ministry issued directives to the CCP.