Stress on ‘absolute necessities’ in Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s budget for 2025-26
Telegraph | 22 February 2025
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s budget for 2025-26 presented on Thursday emphasised on avoiding “unnecessary expenses” and “unplanned expenditure” with a thrust on “day-to-day operation”.
The allocation for solid waste management, roads, drainage and water supply departments — which form the bedrock of civic services —were raised, but sources said the budget allocation hardly leaves any room for new projects. “The allocations will be just enough to run the services,” said an official.
The mayor’s budget statement — mayor Firhad Hakim did not read the full statement but its copies were circulated among councillors, KMC officials and journalists — stated that the civic body wanted to “focus only on absolute necessities based on priority.”
“In the backdrop of huge backlog, we need to restrain ourselves from making unnecessary expenses, reduce unplanned expenditure, focus only on absolute necessities based on priority,” the statement mentioned.
The statement also spoke about utilising “state and central government funding to maximum possible”.
The allocation for solid waste management was raised to ₹739.16 crore from ₹546.16 crore (revised estimate for 2024-25).
The budget estimate for 2025-26 for water supply was raised to ₹454.90 crore from ₹221.43 crore (revised estimate for 2024-25); roadways got ₹325.02 crore, up from ₹198.61 (revised estimate for 2024-25); sewerage and drainage will receive ₹352.57 crore, up from ₹266.09 crore (revised estimate for 2024-25).
“There is fund constraint, but we have tried to give all departments a fair share of the budget. All the departments will also get some funding from the state government. Funds from the Centre will also come. These can be used for undertaking new projects,” said an official.
KMC sources said the solid waste management department has to set up a new landfill site in Dhapa, close to the present site that has almost reached its saturation level.
The Dhapa landfill site is also used by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) to dispose of solid waste generated in Salt Lake and New Town.
The KMC is taking back 180 acres in Dhapa from farmers who had been tilling the land, owned by the civic body, for decades as the corporation wants to build waste-processing facilities on it.
There is a wide gap between the volume of waste generated in the city every day and the portion that is processed or recycled. The piece of land that will be procured from farmers will be used to bridge the gap.
Fee increase
The budget also raised the application fee for construction of a new building and the fee that an owner has to pay when the KMC approves a building plan (the permit fee).
“The building application fee and the building permit fee were raised after nearly a decade,” said a KMC official.
The fees depend on the height of the building, the road width in front of a building and the total constructed area. The KMC issues permits for construction of about 3,500 new buildings approximately in a year, said an official.
The KMC budget also increased licence fees of 221 categories of trades and some amusement fees, sources said. “The licence fees were also raised after several years,” said another official.
“Among the amusement fee hikes is the fee that clubs, both with and without bars, pay to the KMC,”he added.
A senior official said they expected to raise a few crores of additional revenue from in 2015-26 owing to the raise in the fees.
The KMC “looks forward to augment its revenue collection to bring down the difference in expenditure and receipts”, the budget document mentioned.