KMC suffers big revenue loss in advertisement dept, to float new policy
Kolkata: With the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) entering the financial year 2024-25 with a cumulative deficit of Rs 1962.90 crore, mayor Firhad Hakim said that the civic body suffered major revenue losses in the advertisement department and seeks to implement a new policy to prevent further losses.
On Saturday, the Mayor placed the Budget for financial year 2024-25 where the civic body has managed to bring the deficit down to Rs 112 crore from Rs 126.37 crore in 2023-24. However, according to the Budget statement, the coming financial year opens with a cumulative deficit of Rs 1962.90 crore under the revenue fund of the KMC. Further, taking into account this opening deficit, the fiscal year 2024-25 will close with a cumulative deficit of Rs 2,074.90 crore.
In such a context when the Mayor was asked about the revenue losses, he admitted that the civic body has suffered major losses mainly in the advertisement department. “A major chunk of revenue from the advertisement department was lost. We have finalised a new advertisement policy and seek to implement it. There are also some other departments where revenue collection targets could not be met but we will do everything to stop this loss of revenue so we can extend services to the people in a better way,” he said. The Mayor also added: “The new advertising policy is yet to be finalised in the member mayor in council (MMIC) meeting.”
On the deficit Budget, he said: “This is not the first deficit Budget. It has been going on for several years. But, we have been able to reduce it to some extent and hope to gradually reduce it further. Our priority is to extend services to people regardless of the deficit or surplus issues on paper.”
Asked if the embargo that was placed in earlier budgets to control expenditures will continue to be in place in 2024-25, Hakim said: “Embargo will be in place. We will increase expenditure according to the revenue collection.”
He highlighted: “KMC assessment collection department officials visited several tax payers and helped them in clearing their tax dues. About Rs 650 crore was retrieved. We will continue with this and reward our tax collectors.”
