As five city corporations roll out their maiden budgets, the numbers show a divide in how much each corporation can raise and how much they must depend on outside support.
With the mix of revenue sources, the analysis report by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy explains how corporations like the East and Central draw a larger share from taxes (property tax), while North and West rely more on non-tax revenues. South stands relatively balanced.
While property tax remains the backbone across all five, its strength varies. It contributes 51% of its own source revenue (OSR) in East and 42% in Central, but drops to around 34–37% in North, West and South.
Where tax revenues fall short, draft budget estimates show how State support steps in. West depends heavily on this, with 31% of its revenue coming from Karnataka government capital grants, followed by North at 23%. In contrast, East receives just 10% from such grants. This also explains the corporation’s ability to generate taxes. East raises 24% of its revenue through taxes, compared to only 18% in North and 17% in West.
This imbalance shows how much of their spending corporations can fund on their own. Across the city, only about ₹55 out of every ₹100 spent comes from internal sources. East, North and South manage to cover about 57% of their expenditure this way, Central about 55%, and West just 50%.
