FOR fifth year in row, Nagpurians have been spared from the tax bomb, as Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) continued to present a populist budget. The tax-free budget for year 2025-26 envisages an outlay of Rs 5438.61 crore of which Rs 698.87 crore is in fact surplus of current year as civic body could not utilise it. That component now gets carried over to the next financial year. Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari after presenting the budget, on Friday, interacted with media. He said that the civic body expected total expenditure Rs 5399.05 crore next year leaving a surplus of Rs 39.56 crore.

 

As to expenditure, the Municipal Commissioner said, the same has been budgeted for Rs 2364.14 crore under Revenue head. Rs 2872.33 crore will be utilised as capital cost. The higher outlay for capital indicates NMC administration’s commitment to keep the development momentum in the city going, said the Municipal Commissioner while explaining contours of the budget. NMC budget for 2025-26 is in fact a scale down from current year outlay which was kept at Rs 5565.07 crore by Dr Chaudhari during last year. But at fag end of financial year, the Municipal Commissioner revised the figures for year 2024-25 with total receipts at end of March 2025 expected tobearoundRs5302.45 crore.

 

The total receipts during the current year is expected to be aroundRs 4067.47crorewhile expenditure is pegged at Rs 4603.58 crore. In a way, the Municipal Commissioner said, the civic administrationhasbetteredutilisation of funds by narrowing down the surplus amount tojust Rs 698.87 crore from previous year’s Rs 1234.98 crore. But the robust figure ofRs 5565.70crore, highest ever outlay in NMC history projected by the Municipal Commissioner during the last year, however, fizzled out due to poor recovery. As toreason behind opting for tax free budget, the Municipal Commissioner toldnewspersons thatincreasingrevenueisan easiestoption.Whatisneededhowever is more robust collection system so that tax net is spread over 90percentofusers.Till then any amountofjacking-upof taxes makes no sense, hence NMC is concentrating on tying-up the loose ends at its end and concentrateonmakingrecoverysystem more stable.

 

Explaining the break-ups, the Municipal Commissioner said, NMC expects to receive Rs 1772.50 crore from State Government as GST compensation grant during next year. Last year’s share is going to be about Rs 1640.74 crore form GST common pool and every year8per cent increase is taken into consideration. Similarly, another Rs 70 crore revenue is expected from Stamp Duty share by the NMC during thenext financialyear.Theinternal revenue from all sources for the civic body in next financial year is expected to be around Rs 3572.20 crore. In net, the internal collection fromNMCcontinues tobeinred and the civic body continues to rely heavily on grants from State Government to live for another day, as tax base is not so robust andhence administrationhas to be conscious of its purse before opening it for projects. Besides the twomajorheadsunderwhich grants are receivedbycivicbody, there are other streams through whichNMCisgiven funds forvarious development projects by Urban Development Department (UDD). River pollution abatement

 

THE Municipal Commissioner highlighting the salientpointsof civic budget said, the Naag river pollution abatement project would get goingin theyear 2025- 26. The Project Management Consultant (PMC) has divided the project in five packages, one ofwhich electriccrematoriaDPR is almost ready and going to be implementedbyNMConitsown. TheDPRandtenders forrest four packages, including construction of SewageTreatment Plants (STPs)at threeplaceswithcapacityofprocessing92TMCofwaste water. Thereafter, existing two STPs would be upgraded to 5 TMC, seven new pumping stations andrelocationof twounits. Total cost of the project is pegged at Rs 1926.99 crore and Centre, State and NMC would share the financial burden in ratio of 60:25:15 respectively coming to Rs 1115.22 crore, Rs 507.36 crore and Rs 304.41 crore (for NMC). Similarly, tenders for Pohara river pollution abatement project has been awarded and the workis sanctioned under Amrut 2.0 scheme. NMC is implementing the project under Nagpur City South Sewerage Zone and Hudkeshwar and Narsala.

 

The cost of this project is Rs 957.01 crore and under it 535 km of new sewerage trunk lineis going tobelaidincityhaving diameter of 200 mm to 1500 mm. A 45 TMC STP is going to be added in the project along with six pumping stations. Solid Waste THE two pronged strategy on solid waste management front wouldcontinue thisyear,whereinoneis to tackle thelegacywaste with targetof freeing21 acreland mass at Bhandewadi Dumping Yard by year 2026. The aim is to reduce the 10.5 lakh tonnes of legacy waste and the freed land can then be diverted for some purposeful use. Along side, the project of M/s SusBDe for processing 1,000 tonnes solid waste is also shaping up. The company has set up a micro unit on 9 acre where it processes 350-440 tonnessolidwasteondailybasis. By end of April, the plant would handle 750 MT of solid waste. Additional Municipal Commissioner Ajay Charthankar, Chief Engineer LeenaUpadhaye,ChiefAccountsand Finance Officer SadashivShelke, Deputy CommissionerVijaya Bankar andSuperintending Engineer, PWD, NMC, Manoj Talewar alsowere present.