BBMP and BDA fall short of budgetary estimates

BENGALURU: Two of the city's largest municipal bodies, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike ( BBMP) and Bangalore Development Authority ( BDA), responsible for upkeep and development, have consistently fallen short of their budgetary estimates. The two bodies have overestimated their budgets by as much as 60 per cent and 80 per cent compared to actuals.

Between 2010 and 2014, consecutive budgets of BBMP have overstated the amount of money it expects to generate (receipts) and spend (payments) by about 60 per cent against actuals, according to data from the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. The BDA is worse off with a variance of as much as 80 per cent every year.

"The basic rule in any government department is to exaggerate the expenditure and suppress the income, so that they can seek more funds," former additional chief secretary V Balasubramanian said."These budgets are a work of fiction. The BBMP has no money really to pay salaries or even contractors. And BDA's town planning department wants to just show more work. Denotification is the only thing BDA is doing," he said.



Unable to generate money against budgetary projections, Bengaluru's spend on development is severely short of what will be needed. One estimate is that Bengaluru would need Rs 3,48,000 crore by 2030 to meet its growing needs, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report.

As a result of underinvestment, the i city's productivity has also been suffering. "As a city , we aren't watching closely why projects are not getting completed. It is because more projects are announced for kickbacks without actually having the money to fund them. To announce projects worth crores, they have to pretend that they will get crores of revenue.So, they will add all sorts of fictitious entries on the revenue side," says urban expert Ashwin Mahesh.

In terms of economic performance, Bengaluru is ranked 87th globally in the recent Global Metro monitor by Brookings, behind Delhi (18), Kolkata (32), Mumbai (52), Chennai (57) and Hyderabad (76).

Soon after Siddaramaiah took charge as chief minister in May 2013, B.PAC suggested having an exclusive minister for Bengaluru and its development. But Siddaramaiah retained the Bengaluru city development portfolio with eight other heavy-duty portfolios, including finance, large and medium scale industries and science and technology .

"The city gets peanuts from the government," says V Anand, chairperson of BBMP's standing committee on tax and finance.

"If the state's budget is Rs 1.20 lakh crore, about Rs 65,000 crore is drawn from Bengaluru and we are left with very little to do anything at all." With an ambitious tax target of Rs 2,500 crore, the BBMP has managed only about Rs 1,600 crore. "Another Rs 300 crore is expected by Marchend, leaving us with a shortfall of over Rs 500 crore," Anand said.