BMC unveils Rs 39,038 cr budget, keeps tax structure unchanged

The Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) on Wednesday unveiled Rs 39,038.83 crorebudget for the year 2021-22.

In a relief to citizens, no additional civic tax orlicence fee was proposed in the budget by the BMC, thecountry's richest civic body that goes to polls early nextyear.

The BMC said in the budget that its revenue collectiondeclined due to ''the decisions taken to combat COVID-19 and toprovide relief measures for different sectors affected by it''.

It said its property tax collection was ''adversely affected''due to the pandemic and the resulting lockdown.

The total budget estimates for the next financial yearare 16.74 per cent more than the last fiscal when it hadpresented a budget of Rs 33,441 crore.

Municipal commissioner I S Chahal, who presented thebudget before to the standing committee, kept the civictaxes and licence fees unchanged.

''There is no additional tax and charge in the budget,''he said while talking to reporters after its presentation.

In the 11.51 crore surplus budget, the civic body isexpecting a revenue of a Rs 27,811.57 crore from varioussources, including property tax, water and sewage charges,compensation in lieu of octroi and DP fees, which is Rs 636crore less as compared to the Rs 22,448 crore estimatedrevenue of FY 20-21.

The civic body increased its budget allocation forhealth care to Rs 4,728 crore from Rs 4,220 crore in FY 20-21.

It also raised the capital expenditure by almost 50 per centwith an aim to build new hospitals and improve the existinghealth infrastructure.

It said it had earlier estimated Rs 6,768.58 crorerevenue from property tax, but the pandemic forced it to laterrevise it to Rs 4,500 crore, due to which its income reducedby Rs 2268.58 crore.

Similarly, the revenue from the Development Plan (DP)department decreased to Rs 2,679.52 crore, from the estimatedRs 3,879 crore due to the pandemic, lockdown and slow-down inthe real estate sector, it said.

Chahal, however, said, ''The drop in property taxcollection is a temporary phase and the BMC expects that itwill come to normalcy in the near future.'' He said they have been following up with the stategovernment for Rs 5,274 crore of dues and with the SlumRehabilitation Authority (SRA) for Rs 1,600 crore dues.

''We expect to receive this amount from the governmentin 2021,'' he said.

The budget does not make any announcement about anynew major infrastructure project and the BMC focuses onvarious ongoing development projects, besides health services,education and other facilities.

The civic body has estimated Rs 18,750 crore for FY21-22 from the Rs 14,637.76 crore in FY 20-21 for the capitalexpenditure works, which includes traffic operation and roads(Rs 1,600 crore), Coastal Road project (Rs 2,000 crore), Watersupply projects (Rs 1,232.17 crore), storm water drains (Rs1149.74 crore), Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (Rs 1,300 crore) andsewage disposal (Rs 1,060.06 crore), among others.

A provision of Rs 750 crore for the BrihanmumbaiElectric Supply and Transport (BEST) was made in the budget,and the BMC also announced to give Rs 406 crore loan to it toenable it to pay gratuity to 3,649 employees.

BEST undertaking provides public bus service to Mumbaiand neighbouring cities.

The BMC also announced to pay Rs 50 lakh compensationeach to 101 BEST staffers, who died due to COVID-19 whiledischarging their duties.

Chahal said that the civic body has proposed to thegovernment to declare the BMC as a single planning authorityfor entire city for its integrated planning and development.

''This proposal is under consideration of thegovernment,'' he said, adding that it may happen very soon.

He also said that they have proposed to build a worldclass aquarium and marine research institute on Worli dairyplot and the Rs 500-crore project will be funded by theMaharashtra government.

Beautification of footpaths, flyovers, and trafficislands is planned, besides building new public toilets andupgradation of five gardens in each wards before December end,he added.

The civic body has proposed to open 10 CBSE schools,Chahal said, adding that a total of 963 upper primary schoolsand 224 secondary primary municipal schools of the BMC will berenamed as Mumbai Public Schools to positively influencepublic perception towards the civic schools, he said He also announced creation of ''climate changedepartment'' in BMC, in the wake of addition of Mumbai in C40cities of the world.

The civic chief said the BMC plans to set up a'Dabbawala Bhavan' in central Mumbai as a mark of respect toDabbawalas, who have been providing tiffin service in the citysince 1870 and continue to feed two lakh citizens everyday.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said the budget focuseson the overall development of Mumbai and includes variousdevelopment works.

The opposition parties, however, criticised the budgetof the Shiv Sena-controlled BMC.

BJP leader Ashish Shelar alleged that the budgetshowers various concessions to the rich people.

Ravi Raja, opposition leader in BMC, said the civicbody has shown a dream which cannot be fulfilled.