Financial Tribune- Tehran Municipality�s budget bill for the next fiscal (March 2018-19) will be submitted to the Tehran City Council on January 20, the deputy mayor for planning and urban development said.

Noting that the budget ceiling will �probably� be set at 175 trillion rials ($4.06 billion), Hojjatollah Mirzaie added that the figure has yet to be finalized in the Municipal Deputies Council, Mehr News Agency reported.

TM�s budget for the current year (March 2017-18) stood at 184.89 trillion rials ($4.29 billion).

In December, Mirzaie said the city seeks to diversify its revenue sources.

Under the new municipal management that took office in August, the official added that TM�s budget management will not surrender to �financial slackness� next year by relying on unsustainable revenues, such as construction taxes and duties�the simplest way to raise money, but will rely on five new financial resources.

�These new resources include taxes on municipal services and facilities, state funding, foreign investment and finance deals, value added tax and private sector investment in economically feasible projects,� he said.

Referring to the consequences of overreliance on construction revenues, Mirzaie said Tehran�s current fiscal budget took a body blow with the financial meltdown in the housing sector.

�Such revenues accounted for as much as 80% of the budget. In fact, the biggest share of the city�s budget was procured from taxes and duties paid by 200,000 people active in the construction sector,� he said.