BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget for the year 2025-26 is likely to touch Rs 15,000 crore, as per sources in the palike. Reportedly for the first time, senior officials of the civic body are planning to present a zone-wise budget.
Last year, 2024-25, the BBMP presented a budget of Rs 12,369 crore. The budget size was increased to Rs 13,114 crore, with the government promising to provide an additional Rs 745 crores when approved. The budget size is generally increased by 5-8 percent year-on-year. This year, it is likely to increase a bit more as the Palike plans zone-wise budget.
This is the first time that BBMP has formulated such a plan, and it is learned that Harish Kumar, Special Commissioner of BBMP Finance, has proposed the plan to BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath.
Under the BBMP Act-2020, the top brass of each zone have been assigned to decide on the budget to be prepared zone-wise. This apart, there are also powers given to manage each zone and release funds for specific programmes and works.
Though the city was divided into eight zones, BBMP is still functioning under a centralised system. For this reason, the next budget has been planned to be divided zone-wise for better infrastructure.
Don’t sanction Rs 4k cr loan to BBMP: Forum to World Bank
While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed to take a loan of Rs. 4,000 crores from the World Bank for flood mitigation, a forum has requested the World Bank not to approve the same, suspecting corruption and maladministration.
Right to Information Study Institute, which filed a complaint with the World Bank in this regard, urged the Bank not to sanction loan due to the possibility of misuse of money by the BBMP. Addressing the media, the managing trustee of the institution, Amaresh, said that a proposal has been submitted for sanction of a loan of $426 million from the World Bank under the Karnataka Water Security and Resilience Program. He said that a virtual meeting has already been held by BBMP officials in this regard with World Bank officials.
Amaresh said the BBMP and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) are facing a severe financial crisis as they have already taken huge loans from various agencies. Now, the additional burden of borrowing $426 million from the World Bank will definitely have serious implications on its finances and eventually the burden will be passed onto the shoulders of tax payers.
“BBMP is technically incapable of handling such huge projects. Several cases of misuse of public funds for the development and implementation of storm water drains are already pending before the Lokayukta for investigation. There is no financial accounting system in BBMP to handle such huge projects,” he said and added, the proposal to borrow from the World Bank is unnecessary.