After infrastructure, PMC looks for consultants to improve finances

“Civic accounts department staff already have a load of routine responsibilities. It is difficult to engage civic staff for the new responsibility of documentation, including financial statement, to be submitted to apply for various schemes like smart city plan and AMRUT. Civic staff also lack expertise for the purpose,” said Ulka Kalaskar, chief accountant of the PMC.

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The consultant company that would be appointed by the PMC for financial matters would work for financial planning of new projects and schemes, she said, adding, “Its service will also be used to improve the financial status of the civic body by adopting new techniques.”

The PMC faced a lot of problems in collecting taxes for the civic body and state government and so the consultants’ guidance would be helpful to resolve the issues related to taxes, Kalaskar said.

“The consultant will also be asked to identify new means to increase revenue collection of the civic body and give inputs to increase efficiency of civic staff handling financial matters. The suggestion on cost cutting will also be sought from the consultant to ensure effective use of available finances,” Kalaskar said.
The PMC accounts department would provide all basic information to consultants to study civic finances and get suggestions to inculcate professional attitude in handling civic finances, she added.

The PMC has a budget of Rs 4,479 crore for 2015-16 as the budget increases every year. However, the civic administration has been able to implement only 70 per cent of the estimated budget in the last few years, leading to criticism from elected representatives and citizens that raise doubts over its efficiency in financial planning.

“The state government’s decision on partial abolition of LBT had raised concerns over the financial crisis of the PMC as LBT was the major contributor towards revenue,” said the civic officer.

Moreover, the Union and state governments have been in favour of taking up projects through public-private partnership instead of funding. “If the civic body has to raise funds from other resources for infrastructure projects, then the first thing will be to improve its financial condition,” added the civic officer.

The PMC has already undertaken credit rating of the civic body that will help raise funds through loan, public private participation, municipal bonds from market etc. The PMC administration is all set to sign an agreement with World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other financial institutions to help provide technical assistance to prepare projects under the smart city plan. It recently approved the appointment of McKinsey and Company to prepare its smart city plan.