Government issues draft notification to clip BBMP budget

The state government on Thursday issued a draft notification of the draft of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Rules) 2021, giving 30 days time for opinions before the final gazette notification is done.

The rules the government proposes to make are under the exercise of powers under sub-section (1) of section 8 of Karnataka local fund authorities fiscal responsibility act, dated September 28, 2021.

Explaining what it means, a senior government official told The New Indian Express: "This will be an instrument to bring financial discipline in BBMP. It will ensure that the expenditure does not exceed the income and the budget is drawn based on the revenues generated in the last fiscal year."

"With this now the BBMP cannot show extra expenditure for gains. It will have to now manage it's expenditure based on actual revenue generated. This is the first time such a rule is being brought in to bring in better accountability. The impact of the introduction of the rules will be shown in the upcoming BBMP budget preparation."

There have been many instances in the past where the BBMP has shown that many times excessive expenditure is shown in projects like road repair or civic works to raise more revenue, but have landed up with high loans. Now the rules are aimed to bring in transparency, trust among citizens of BBMP, and financial prolificacy in the BBMP, the official explained.

"This new rule will not limit the government revenue coming into BBMP. It will ensure check on the tendency to go overboard in showing budget scales, fictitious sources of revenue generation, leading to over loans and excessive budget outlays which have been done in the past," the official added.

BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that he was pleased that the rules which were proposed have been accepted. The BBMP and finance department were working on the draft for the last one and half years.