15th Fifteenth Finance Commission meets representatives of Karnataka ULBs

The 15th Finance Commission headed by NK Singh along with its members and senior officials on Monday met with the representatives of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of Karnataka.

According to an official statement, all 17 functions of the 18 as envisaged in the 12th schedule of the Constitution have been devolved to ULBs in Karnataka. One remaining function of fire services was devolved only to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP).

The State has been releasing funds currently as per the recommendations of the 4th State Finance Commission ( 2018-19 to 2022-23).

Karnataka has a total of 280 ULBs, of which 115 are Town Municipal Councils, 92 are Town Panchayats, 58 are City Municipal Councils, 11 are Municipal Corporations, and four Notified Area Councils.

According to the official statement, 48 per cent of the non-loan net own revenue (NLNORR) of the state is to be allocated to local bodies. One per cent of the NLNORR may be earmarked to the Brihat Bengaluru Municipal Corporation.

The Commission, however, observed that there was no releases of performance grants to ULBs in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

"The revenue from advertisement tax for ULBs was estimated to be Rs 200 crore in 2018-19. In this regard, the state government responded that ULBs were provided additional devolution of 0.5 per cent per annum," said the Commission.