Just 35.56% of budget projection is actual revenue of Mysuru City Corporation

Officials neglect, irresponsibility resulting in dependence on government grants: Alleges ex-Mayor Shivakumar

Mysuru: The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), which presented a budget, projecting a revenue of Rs 1,311.13 crore for the current (2026-27) financial year is in fact garnering a revenue of just Rs 466.19 crore – 35.56 per cent. It depends on government grants for the remaining amount and is not doing much to become self-sustained, alleged a former mayor.

A majority of the MCC’s funds come from government grants - State government grants of Rs 223.99 crore; Central government grants of Rs 132.50 crore; special grants of Rs 204.05 crore, and Rs 16.33 crore of other grants.

Actual revenue

The actual revenue of the MCC of Rs 466.19 crore comprises Rs 286.72 crore through property tax, khatha transfer fee, and advertisement fee; Rs 115.35 crore through water tax and UGD maintenance fee; Rs 27.50 crore through building license, and water connection fee; Rs 8.84 crore from trade license; Rs 6.49 crore by rent of commercial complexes and markets; and advertisement fee of Rs 2 crore.

Former mayor Shivakumar said, the budget is a bogus show by the government officials. “They have projected a grant of Rs 110.03 crore from the 16th Finance Commission. Last year also they had included a similar grant in the budget from the 16th Finance Commission. But, don’t they know that they do not get this grant, if there is no elected council. There is no council from November 2023. Under such circumstances they claim the budget to be a surplus one of Rs 10.20 crore,” he said.

Illegal connections

“Recently, when the MCC hiked the water connection charges by 30 per cent and underground drainage (UGD) fees by 10 per cent, besides a revision in water charges - basic monthly fee from Rs 125 to Rs 163 – I pointed out that the MCC is burdening only prompt taxpayers. Nearly 50 per cent of the houses have illegal water connections and thus they do not pay any tax for using, in fact misusing, the water supplied by the MCC,” Shivakumar said.

“Instead of bringing all citizens under the tax net, the MCC officials are overburdening only sincere tax payers, by hiking the taxes. The officials know well that illegal tap water users do not even have a mechanism to stop the flow of water. They use hosepipes to tap the water from the illegal connection points and let the water down the drain when they are not collecting or using the precious water. A lot of precious water is being wasted due to the negligence and irresponsibility of the officials,” he said.

Rent scam

Shivakumar said, the MCC owns over 2,000 commercial properties across Mysuru city, but why is the annual rent revenue so low as Rs 6.49 crore. “This amount is low even for a monthly revenue of the MCC, considering the valuation of its properties. The original tenants of the MCC are earning huge amounts per month, by subleasing the shops and commercial spaces. It is not just the original tenants, who are exploiting the MCC properties to make money. There are multiple sub-lessees between tenant and the person or entity doing actual business on the MCC’s properties. While the actual rent paid by the person or entity doing business on an MCC property might be Rs 25,000 for a 10X10 space in a prime place, the MCC is still getting a couple of hundreds of Rupees. This is more true for the older properties of the MCC, like Devaraja Market,” he said.

Shivakumar said, if the MCC puts its properties to proper use and collects rents on par with market rates, the MCC can get huge revenues and reduce its dependence on State and Central government grants, Shivakumar said.