Venkaiah Naidu favours a share of GST revenue for urban local bodies

Venkaiah Naidu favours a share of GST revenue for urban local bodies

• Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu

Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu has favoured a share of GST (Goods and Services Tax) revenue for the municipalities across the country to ensure predictable and guaranteed flow of funds to enable them take up urban reconstruction initiatives.

He expressed concern over the huge urban fiscal gap while addressing a ‘National Workshop on Governance, Administrative Reforms and Capacity Building’ here today. The Workshop was organized by the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER) with the support of the Ministry of Urban Development.

Venkaiah Naidu said that the country’s municipalities are the weakest in the world in terms of access to resources, financial autonomy and revenue raising capability. Quoting from a report of the McKinsey Global Institute, he noted that annual per capita income of all municipalities was only Rs.1,430 as against the expenditure commitment of Rs.6,030.

Stressing on the need for predictable and guaranteed resource flows to urban local bodies, Naidu said that he will explore the possibility of earmarking a share of revenues from the proposed GST with the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely.

Naidu expressed concern over substantial share of revenues of municipal bodies going towards payment of salaries leaving only a little for mandated functions and development activities.

The Minister emphasized that Public-Private-Partnership model is a crucial vehicle for mobilizing huge order of resources required for building smart cities and bridging the huge infrastructure deficit in other urban areas.

via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/19TwZjd