Civic body imposes embargo on non-essential services

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has imposed an embargo when it comes to expenses for the financial year 2022-23. The move comes in the wake of high expenditure primarily due to Covid services.

"There will be no embargo when it comes to providing essential services of the KMC that includes health, conservancy, drainage, water supply, lighting etc. But some financial expenditure restrictions have been imposed on non-essential services like creating assets in the form of community halls etc till September this year. The revenue has also been below expectation because of the Covid pandemic," Mayor Firhad Hakim said.

He added that expenses of the KMC have increased in pension allowance as per a new directive of the Finance department. "We have spent a lot in these two years for Covid-related services and so we have ushered in some discipline in expenditure. We are hopeful that if we act judiciously in this respect, then situation will become normal in the next two years," Hakim said.

A circular in this regard has been issued by KMC Commissioner Binod Kumar stating that for creation, maintenance and repair of assets there will be an embargo on the budget allocation. 60 percent funds can be spent and another 40 percent will be kept on hold. After utilisation certificate is furnished after spending 60 percent funds, the rest 40 percent can be released.

The budget of the KMC that was passed for the year 2022-23 earlier this month has pegged the civic body's income at Rs 4233.11 crore and expenditure at Rs 4410.11 crore. So, the opening deficit stands at Rs 177 crore.

The deficit for the year 2021-22 was pegged at Rs 580 crore. However, KMC has been able to make up the deficit to a reasonable extent by putting embargo on non-essential expenditure. "We are following the same path this time too," a senior KMC official said.