Meghalaya okays Ordinance Amendment to augment contingency

The state government today approved the Meghalaya Ordinance Amendment 2016 for augmentation of the State Contingency Fund to the tune of Rs 305 crore for meeting the various urgent demands of the state.
"We have approved the proposal for augmenting the contingency fund by another Rs 200 crore, which is at Rs 305 crore," Chief Minister Mukul Sangma told reporters after a cabinet meeting held here.
He said, "This will be through an ordinance since there is no session (of the State Legislative Assembly) at the moment and this corpus of contingency which is proposed to be augmented will be effective till March 31."

According to the Chief Minister, earlier, the Corpus of the Meghalaya Contingency fund had been fixed at Rs 105 crore and through an augmentation from the earlier figure of Rs 75 crore in 2004.
He informed this year, out of the Rs 105 crore which is available as corpus for the Meghalaya Contingency Fund, the government is left with only around Rs 2.9 crore.
"Therefore with number of proposals coming from various line departments, to meet the committed liabilities of the government and which are raised out of urgent demand, the cabinet has decided to increase this contingency fund from Rs 105 crore by another 200 which is Rs 305 crore," he added.

The cabinet also approved the revision of the property tax in local bodies under the Meghalaya Municipal Act, 1973 which will enable generation of additional revenue of around Rs 5.32 crore.

"With the implementation of the new system of assessment and taxation, the Shillong Municipal Board is likely to generate additional revenue of around Rs 5.32 crores," Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said.
"This will on one hand help in bringing the revenue gap and on the other hand will lead to upgradation and improvement of the level of urban services in Shillong city," she said.
Based on the recommendation of Second Municipal Valuation Committee constituted by the state government, the Urban Affairs department had come up with a new Unit Area Based Self Assessment System for assessment of properties in Shillong Municipal Board.