In the last 13 years, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has failed to utilise 25 per cent of the budget grant. From 2006-07 to 2018-19, the civic body announced Rs58,995.04 crore as a budget grant of which they couldn't utilise Rs14,366 crore.
This shows that the civic body has failed in resource mobilisation over the years. "When the budget was estimated but not utilised as per the announcement, means there was no fund. It is also true that the target of the tax collection was not collected as per their target," said Mahendra Jethmalani, director of Pathey Centre for Budget Analysis.
"Due to not meeting resource mobilisation, they have cut down their expenses. Most of the cuts in the infrastructure related works do not get finished as per estimation. Many a time the civic body receives lesser than estimated grant from the state," added Jethmalani. He said that because of the unrealistic budget, citizens are not getting efficient services and infrastructure.
The opposition leader, Dinesh Sharma said that the civic body gives a rosy picture, the ruling party BJP gives an unrealistic budget. "Every year the revised budget consists of funds that are estimated to be more than a thousand crore. But the funds are not being utilised, and people are left with false hopes. They are making tall and unrealistic claims that are never fulfilled. The budget for the ruling party is a way to fool citizens," said Sharma.
"Every year, they are repeating their projects in the budget because they do not have the money to spend. Last year in the budget they had announced of multilevel parking, the same project has been included for the next year's budget too," said Sharma.
When asked the standing committee chairman, Amul Bhatt, said that this year they have a well-planned structure to utilise funds. "We are expecting to raise money by selling out plots. Also, we are getting Rs500 crore as green bonds in the next fiscal. There will not be any shortage of funds this year," he said.
