Anticipating a sharp decline in revenue in the next financial year, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is all set to table this week a deficit budget for the sixth consecutive year. The expected loss might be pegged at over Rs 49 crore in the budget data to be presented in the corporation board meeting.

According to sources, the civic body proposes income generation of Rs 227.64 crore for the upcoming financial year. The expenditure is expected to be around Rs 276.96 crore.

The budget will be tabled before the PMC empowered standing committee meeting on Tuesday before being put up for approval by councillors in the corporation board meeting, the date for which has not been decided yet.

“The budget draft has been prepared by the accounts department in consultation with Urban Technical Assistance Support Team, a private agency. Like last time, the budget for the next financial year would also reveal that the PMC was incurring huge loss of revenues. Unfortunately, no concrete measures have been proposed to meet the revenue losses,” said a source.

The budget last year had a deficit of Rs 29 crore. Barring 2006-07, when the PMC had registered marginal profit of Rs 14 crore, the civic body has been running in losses for over a decade.

Sources in the accounts department said proposals to raise several taxes were made last year. In addition to the proposed hike in taxes, professional tax was also introduced for discussion. But is yet to be notified by the government.

If sources are to be believed, the PMC administration has included increase in various categories of taxes arguing that since the past several years there has been no significant rise in taxes by the corporation and hence there was urgent need to find ways to generate revenue to improve the financial health of the government agency.

The civic body has been contemplating holding tax hike by up to 25 per cent of annual rental value (ARV) of assets in the corporation area. The move is set to increase revenue of the cash-strapped civic body.

A senior official of the corporation told The Telegraph: “The recent amendment in Bihar Municipal Act (2011) enables urban local bodies to make changes in the existing tax rates. The rules are yet to be laid and once it happens, we will enhance the tax rates. At present, PMC charges 8.2-9 per cent of ARV as holding tax on property. It will be increased to up to 25 per cent once the provisions of the act are laid down.”

The step is being initiated after the state urban development department hired a Delhi-based technical support agency to prepare the “Revenue Enhancement Plan” for the cash-strapped local bodies, including the PMC. The consultants had suggested large-scale changes in the tax structure of the urban bodies.

The civic body would also take up some new projects this year. The details of these plans and estimates would also be discussed in the board meeting in which the budget would be presented for approval.