KMC Presents Rs 168 cr Deficit Budget

Kolkata civic body faces Rs 168 cr deficit. Mayor quotes revenue loss in regularisation of buildings as one reason.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee today presented a Rs 168 crore deficit budget of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for the year 2015-16.

While tabling the budget, the mayor said while the projected expenditure was Rs 2904.54 crore, the income stood at Rs 2736.54 crore.

Elaborating the reasons for the deficit, the mayor said a revenue loss of about Rs 90-100 crore was due to a ban on the regularisation of illegal buildings in Kolkata.

A bill has already been passed in the Assembly seeking to regularise such buildings, he said.

Another reason for the revenue loss was the restriction imposed by the defence authorities on construction of highrises within 500 m of defence buildings.

This, he said, will lead to a revenue loss of another Rs 100 cr.