TMC Budget proposes 2% surcharge on Property Tax, members to get tabs

Thane Municipal Corporation in its Rs 2166 crore Budget (2014-15) today has proposed a 2 per cent surcharge on property tax to finance ‘Shelter Fund’ which is aimed at constructing tenements for residents of dilapidated buildings.
Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta presented the budget to the Standing Committee.
In his speech, Gupta touched upon various issues that went into making of the budget.
“We have not proposed any hike in the water charges but the charges will depend on spending on account of raw water, power bill and administrative expenses as of April 01, 2014,” the civic chief said.
This indirectly means that as components charges increase the water charges may also shoot up.
He said flat owners will have to pay additional 1% charge towards administrative expenses based on the annual tax.
Expenses proposed in the budget under various heads are: Public Health and Waste Management (Rs 459 crore), Roads, Bridges, subways (Rs 274 crore) Water supply (Rs 249 crore), Basic Facilities for economically backward (Rs 240 crores), Education (Rs 163 crore), Transport (Rs 149 crore), Sewerage (Rs 124 crore), Social Security (Rs 92 crore), and Development work in municipal wards (Rs 92 crore).
The budget envisages revenue of Rs 355 crore from developmental charges; Rs. 650 crore from LBT, Rs 302 crore from Property Tax; Rs 105 crore from Water Tax; Rs 44 crore from Fire charges and Rs 16 crore from PWD.
Apart from other projects, the civic chief also announced an integrated Crematorium development scheme, allocating Rs 9 crore per year.
He said those projects which aid in maintaining environment of the city will get sufficient concession in charges and taxes.
“Citizens opting for online payment of taxes and through ECS will also be given rebate of certain percentage in the taxes,” Gupta said.
“Each corporator would be provided with a tablet to make him techno-savvy and all correspondence and details including the notices of the meetings would be made available on these gadgets,” the municipal commissioner said.
In a noble gesture, the TMC has has decided to impart basic education to its Class-IV employees.
“They will be trained by certain agencies to identify letters for three months and when they take their salary for the fourth month they should be able to at least sign the papers,” Gupta said.
If they fail to sign, the corporation will deduct a sum of Rs. 100 from their salaries to be refunded only after they can sign the documents, he added.