Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City Corporation Council Budget for 2018-19 presented on Monday did not propose any new project or visionary project for the city.

Prathiba Kulai, chairperson, Standing Committee for Taxation, Finance and Appeals, presented a ₹ 247.91-crore surplus budget. The total receipts, including the opening balance, was estimated at ₹ 962.37 crore and the total expenditure at ₹ 714.46 crore.

The budget proposals read out by the Standing Committee chairperson referred mainly to allocation to routine annual activities and the projects already announced by the corporation. The projects repeated included building modern markets at Surathkal, Kadri and Kankanady in addition to replacing the old tubelights on the city streets with LED lights.

The allocation to routine annual activities included maintenance of parks, toilets, roads, Town Hall, buildings and the like.

Ms. Kulai said that the second stage of building residences for civic workers of the corporation would be taken up. But did not give details.

Opposition councillors Sudhir Shetty Kannur, Premananda Shetty, Roopa D. Bangera and the former Mayor from the ruling party Mahabala Marla questioned the Mayor Kavita Sanil and Ms. Kulai on the wrong mathematical calculations mentioned in the budget document given to the councillors and read out by the latter.

For example, it said that the funds reserved for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (under 24.1% scheme) would be ₹ 9.61 crore by totalling ₹ 4 crore grant from the State Finance Commission and ₹ 3.23 crore grant from the city corporation fund (the total amount should have been ₹ 7.23 crore), they said.

Another calculation said that ₹ 2.89 crore had been reserved for the welfare of the poor (under 7.25% scheme) by adding ₹ 97.59 lakh from the State Finance Commission and ₹ 97 lakh from the city corporation fund (the total amount should have been ₹ 1.94 crore).

The third mistake in the budget copy was that ₹ 1.20 crore had been reserved for the welfare of physically challenged persons by taking ₹ 40.38 lakh from the State Finance Commission grants and ₹ 40 lakh from the corporation fund (the total amount should have been ₹ 80.38 lakh).

Mr. Marla wondered how the corporation officials and the council as a whole could take such mistakes in the budget copy for granted.

The Opposition members objected to reducing the total volume of the Budget from ₹ 1,152.70 crore in 2017-18 to ₹ 962.37 crore for 2018-19.