The Patna Municipal Corporation budget for the 2016-17 fiscal emphasises on water supply and road construction.

Mayor Afzal Imam passed the budget of Rs 741 crore in a special meeting of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) board at hotel Chanakya on Thursday. This is the third consecutive year the civic body has passed a surplus budget, after deficit budgets over the previous six years.

Though the figures quoted in the budget peg the surplus at Rs 216 crore, municipal commissioner Jai Singh said the actual surplus is around just Rs 20 crore.

"The estimated receipt in the budget during the upcoming fiscal has been pegged at Rs 427 crore and the expected expenditure is Rs 526 crore," he said. "Receipts amounting to around Rs 313 crore have been carried forward from the previous fiscal. We however, divert significant amount of the total receipts to other agencies. For instance, a significant amount of funds has been sanctioned by the state government for the 350th birth anniversary celebration of Guru Gobind Singh. Similarly, we would divert the funds allocated for maintenance of parks to the state environment and forests department."

Two important points in the seven resolves of chief minister Nitish Kumar, providing piped water supply to every household and better roads, are reflected in the allocation for water supply services being hiked by Rs 2.73 crore and that for road construction by Rs 10 crore over the last budget. Considering the water crisis in the city in summer season, Rs 8 crore has been allocated for water tankers. The Bihar Rajya Jal Parishad is also working on plans to ensure water supply to every house as per the resolves.

The budget also focuses on infrastructure development (total allocation Rs 40.29 crore), purchase of machinery and equipment (Rs 50 crore), and streetlights (Rs 30 crore). Rs 1 crore has also been allocated for every ward for development activities.

The civic body plans to meet the overall estimated expenditure of Rs 526 crore through enhanced tax collection under various heads including waste removal charges (Rs 15 crore), holding tax (Rs 80 crore) and advertisement tax (Rs 1.5 crore).

Estimating revenue collection through waste removal charges is a first for the city, as door-to-door waste collection has only recently started in the city. The PMC has started door-to-door waste collection using its own resources in four wards, but bidding process for implementing remaining 68 wards is under way.

The municipal commissioner said revenue generation through tax collection against cellphone towers and hoardings is comparatively lower as the matter is sub-judice.

"Patna High Court is hearing cases in the matter related to tax collection against mobile towers and outdoor advertisement rights. Hence, we can't forcefully collect taxes through these sources. We are collecting taxes only from those who are willingly paying leaving others," said Singh.

Though the budget was passed without incident by the PMC board, some ward councillors raised reservations over the late delivery of the budget copy to them.

"Ward councillors are required to be provided copies of the budget well in advance, so that they can give detailed feedback on it," said deputy mayor Roop Narayan Mehta. "This time the budget was provided to us only a day before the meeting. We have not been able to go through the budget in detail, and are thus not prepared to give our feedback. Still, we have faith in the mayor; hence we are giving our consent to it."

Hemlata Verma, councillor from ward No. 5, raised the demand for toilets for women at the PMC headquarters at Maurya Lok and construction of civic offices in every ward.