Updated: Jan 30th, 2023
– Surat Municipality would not have had to depend on government grants if it had received a grant with growth rate in lieu of octroi.
– The BJP rulers also failed to ask for grant from the government at the octroi rate and the bottom of the municipal coffers appeared.
Surat, dated 30 January 2023, Monday
A resolution to abolish the octroy was approved in the general meeting of the Surat Municipal Corporation on 14 November 2007. The BJP government had promised that after the abolition of octroi, the government would give grants at 10 percent growth rate. If the BJP government had given a grant at 10 percent growth rate, today the Surat municipality would have had to give an additional grant of two thousand crores only in lieu of octroi. If the Surat municipality had received a grant with growth rate in lieu of octroi, it would not have become dependent on the government grant and the municipality would have been able to undertake large projects.
Before 2007, the main source of income of the Surat Municipal Corporation was the octroi income, before the abolition of the octroi, the municipality was earning more than a quarter of a crore per day only from the octroi. The BJP rulers of Surat Municipality cut their wrists and abolished the octroi. The BJP government, which is now called the government of trust of the BJP, had given the trust to the Surat municipality to give a grant at 10 percent growth rate. But Surat Municipality currently does not get grant for octroi from growth rate.
The weak BJP rulers and the weak opposition party are not making any demands against the government on this issue. The current BJP rulers have experienced that the Gujarat government does not want to give a grant to Surat from the growth rate in lieu of octroi. The BJP rulers of the municipality took a swipe at the BJP rulers of the municipality on the issue of demand for grant in lieu of octroi by the government and the weak rulers cannot ask for grant in lieu of octroi in the lower market.
Surat Palika has to depend on government grants for major projects as the weak BJP rulers of Surat Palika are unable to bring in grants from the government to replace the octoray at the growth rate. If there is a grant instead of octroi from the growth rate, then the Surat municipality could have done much more development work than what is currently being done in the Surat municipality and that too without waiting for the grant. Still if the rulers of the municipality fail to take grant from the government instead of octroi from the growth rate, then the next project of the municipality will have to depend on the grant only.
