KOCHI: Taking a departure from the earlier trends of budget presentation, the Kochi Corporation’s 2018-19 budget will focus more on the revenue generating proposals rather than announcing developmental proposals.The Corporation’s plan to take such a decision came after the civic body lost its power to collect entertainment tax from the public. The new tax structure came into effect from last year as a part of avoiding double taxation. It has resulted in a revenue loss of `17 crore.
“Apart from announcing the new proposals which would help to generate revenue, the local body will also take steps to increase revenue collection,” said K V P Krishnakumar, Tax Appeal Committee chairperson.While debating in the council, Deputy Mayor T J Vinodh, who will present the budget, had also said the civic body will take steps to increase revenue generation.
“At present, we are not in a position to collect advertisement and entertainment tax owing to the new tax regime. So we are forced to increase revenue generation,” he had said while participating in the budget. However, he was not available for comment when Express tried to contact him.However, the proposals announced in the 2017-18 budget with an aim to increase the revenue still remain as a nonstarter. “The ruling body’s budget announcements are like drawing a line on water,” said Opposition leader K J Antony.