COVID-19 effect: Drop in revenue to hit infrastructure projects in Cuttack

Though the city's infrastructure projects have got delayed due to the lockdowns, this revenue loss is likely to have a major impact on the civic body's development programmes.

Cuttack Municipal Corporation (File Photo | PTI)

CUTTACK: The COVID-induced lockdowns and shutdowns have caused a major dent in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC)'s revenues. It has been able to generate only around 52 per cent (pc) of its projected revenue for 2020-21 fiscal.

Though the city's infrastructure projects have got delayed due to the lockdowns, this revenue loss is likely to have a major impact on the civic body's development programmes. As per reports, the CMC which had collected total revenue of Rs 49 crore during 2019-2020, had targeted to generate income of Rs 37 crore from tax during 2020-2021 financial year.

While a lion's share of CMC's revenue is collected from holding tax, the revenue amounting Rs 19.45 crore was collected from the sector in 2020-2021. Around Rs 8.18 crore was collected from private households while Rs 11.26 crore generated from government establishment towards holding tax.

In 2016-17, the civic body's revenue had crossed Rs 30 crore. While the revenue collection figure was Rs 39 crore during 2017-18, the collection had come down to Rs 23 crore in 2018-2019. In fact, five years back, the civic body was managing a lowly revenue earning of less than Rs 5 crore, which had drawn stern warning from the State government.

The government had directed the CMC to take steps for generating more revenue instead of depending on the funding. The revenue collection has been on an upswing since with the civic body taking measures to improve collection.

While the CMC authorities are yet to chalk out plan for increasing revenue during the current financial year, economists have raised concern saying the steep fall may affect different civic programmes and projects.

CMC Secretary Latashree Bag said due to the coronavirus pandemic, the civic body's revenues were hit hard. As most of the tax collectors were assigned with ward officer duty under COVID surveillance committees, they failed to focus on revenue collection. Steps would be taken to collect the pending revenues after Covid situation improves, she said.

Tax collection