Four days after former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal accused the Chandigarh administration of not fully utilising the revenue generated from the city's taxpayers and in turn imposing additional taxes on local residents to meet shortfall of revenue as it gets 'less budget' from the central government, the UT Administrator, Banwarilal Purohit, hit back at the senior Congress leader asking him to get all his facts straight before making irresponsible statements. To prove his point, Purohit called a press meet in this regard on Thursday, wherein he presented all the facts about the total budget, collected taxes and expenditure in the last four years. He said, “I respect Pawan Kumar Bansal. He is a senior and mature leader. I did not expect such a statement from a leader of his stature. He tried to portray as if Chandigarh officials were taking the allotted budget to their houses. He also claimed that the city was getting much less in terms of allocation from the Centre. These statements are baseless.” According to an official statement issued later, the UT administration stated that it has effectively utilised the allocations provided by the Centre in the past four years. Moreover, for the current financial year 2023-24, the Chandigarh administration has secured a budget allocation of Rs 6,087.10 crore, representing an increase of Rs 307.98 crore compared to the previous year's budget allocation of Rs 5,779.12 crore. Bansal had alleged that every rupee collected as taxes from the people of Chandigarh by the administration goes to Consolidated Fund of India. But in terms of allocation, the Union Territory (UT) gets very little from the Centre. As a result, both the administration and the municipal corporation are forced to impose additional taxes on the people of Chandigarh. When contacted, Pawan Kumar Bansal said, “The UT Administrator, Banwarilal Purohit, got me wrong. I have great regards for him. I was talking on behalf of a common citizen of Chandigarh. What taxes a common resident pays and what he gets in return. The problem of dumping ground/legacy mining has not been addressed for a long time. Property tax and parking fees are increased every year. People of Chandigarh give much more to the Consolidated Fund of India than what they get in return.”
