Pay more to park your car

Calcutta, July 23: The Trinamul Congress-run Calcutta Municipal Corporation today raised parking fees for all categories of vehicles, announcing the first hike by a party-controlled body in recent memory.

The revised rates (see chart), to be implemented from next week, will fetch the corporation only Rs 7 crore a year. Still, the step marks a milestone since Mamata Banerjee had generally fought shy of biting the bullet when she helmed the railways and her party ran the corporation earlier. The civic body was then not allowed to impose a water tax.

The parking fee increase comes at a time the state, grappling with the financial mess left behind by the Left, has resisted suggestions to nudge up revenue generation and is focusing on seeking central help.

The fee revision by the CMC, which is battling a record deficit, is perhaps too modest and isolated to be termed a turnaround in Trinamul policy. Yet it does suggest that bereft of other options, the party is not averse to testing the water for unpalatable options.

One of the official reasons cited for the parking fee hike, though, is to do away with the irritating need for small change.

Under the new rates, four-wheeler owners must pay a flat rate of Rs 10 an hour and two-wheeler owners, Rs 5 an hour. The monthly (day and night) parking rates too have been raised.

The current hourly parking rates for four-wheelers are Rs 5 in by-lanes, Rs 6 in lanes and Rs 7 in the main thoroughfares. For two-wheelers, the rates are Rs 2.25 in by-lanes, Rs 2.50 in lanes and Rs 3 in thoroughfares.

“We are trying to generate more resources…. Besides, the round figures are much more convenient as they take care of the problem of change,” mayor Sovan Chatterjee said.

The rate revision is estimated to bring in additional revenue of Rs 7 crore. The parking collections amounted to Rs 65 crore in 2010-11.

Chatterjee said the total budget for this fiscal year would be Rs 2294.88 crore and the deficit had been pegged at Rs 251.34 crore. Records in the CMC’s accounts section suggest this is the highest deficit figure in the civic body’s history.

The mayor blamed the erstwhile Left Front-run civic board for the financial mess. “They did not make the payments for several projects and left the onus on us. That’s why the deficit figure looks so high,” Chatterjee said.

Rupa Bagchi, leader of the Opposition in the civic body, said: “There is no revenue mobilisation drive in this budget other than raising the parking fees. This budget lacks vision as the mayor is depending on grants from the state government to take care of the deficit.”

Chatterjee could have kept the deficit under control by trying some bold decisions. For instance, imposition of water tax --– a pre-condition for accessing Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds and money from multilateral agencies --– could have fetched at least Rs 50 crore.

Bringing the 2 lakh un-assessed buildings in the city under the property tax net would have fetched Rs 180 crore.

“Our leader is against imposing water tax; so it cannot be done. A sudden drive to bring more buildings under the tax net will not go down well with the people, either,” a Trinamul leader said, explaining Chatterjee’s dilemma.

A civic body source said the mayor was expecting a windfall of around Rs 400 crore from an interest-waiver scheme on outstanding property tax. Although the scheme’s implementation will require an amendment to the CMC Act, the mayor is confident about getting the benefits of the scheme this fiscal year.