Istanbul gets record budget for 2012, transport funds leading

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

About 61 percent of the Istanbul municipality’s 2012 budget will be invested in transportation. Hürriyet photo

A record consolidated budget of 19.45 billion Turkish Liras has been allocated to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for 2012, a figure that exceeds budgets for 18 Turkish ministries. The Istanbul municipality’s consolidated budget for next year will thus increase by 7.7 percent compared to 2011. The budget allocated to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) in 2012 will be 0.7 percent higher compared to the 2011 budget, amounting 7.3 billion liras. Meanwhile, the budget for the Istanbul Waterworks Authority (İSKİ) totals 3.28 billion liras, 1.83 billion liras for the Istanbul Public Transport Authority (İETT) and the budget for firms connected to the İBB will be 7.38 billion liras in 2012. Allocation to investments amounts to 8.4 billion liras (41.35 percent) of the total budget. Funds allocated for investments to the metropolitan municipality total more than 4.88 billion, to İSKİ about 1.5 billion, to İETT about 540 million liras and 1.14 billion liras to firms attached to the İBB. Of İBB’s total investment financing, about 3 billion liras (61 percent) are allocated to transportation, about 953 million liras (19.5 percent) to environment, 145 million liras (3 percent) to tourism and culture, 327.3 million (6.7 percent) to health and social services and some 461.87 million liras (9.5 percent) of the budget to natural disasters. The İBB revenues for next year were calculated as 6.6 billion, of which 124 million liras are tax revenues, 449 million are revenues from enterprises and property, 121 million liras will be revenues from capital and 5.87 billion liras from other revenue sources. Meanwhile, expenses for 2012 are calculated as 7.3 billion. The 700 million-lira gap will be closed by domestic and external borrowing