Amid revenue concerns, five Bengaluru corporations to table first budgets

Bengaluru: The five newly formed city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Area (GBA) will present their budgets on Friday and Saturday, in what is expected to be a closely watched exercise amid revenue pressures and concerns over rising expenditure.

The East and Central City Corporations are scheduled to present their budgets on Friday. The following day, the North, West, and South City Corporations will table their budgets. The venue has not yet been finalised.

This will be the first budget for the five corporations and comes at a time when revenue generation has emerged as a key concern.

Notably, two of the five corporations — North and West — are in a revenue deficit position, raising questions about their ability to fund civic works without additional support.

Property tax collections, the primary source of revenue, have also fallen short despite efforts by the corporations to encourage property owners to clear their dues. Together, the five corporations are estimated to have generated around Rs 4,000 crore from property tax this year — significantly below projections and at least Rs 1,000 crore less than last year’s collections.

However, officials remain hopeful of improving finances through non-tax revenue streams such as advertisement fees and premium Floor Area Ratio (FAR) charges. These sources are expected to play a crucial role in bridging the gap.

With expenditure likely to rise under the new governance structure that replaces the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), all eyes will be on how each corporation balances its books, particularly in terms of revenue mobilisation and spending priorities.

It is learnt that the state’s budgetary allocation of Rs 3,000 crore has been divided based on the financial strength of the different corporations. North and West are likely to receive a larger share of government grants compared to East and Central, which are relatively better positioned to manage their expenses through property tax revenues.