The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday unveiled a budget of Rs 45,949.21 crore for 2022-23 and allocated Rs 3,200 crore for the coastal road project and Rs 6,933.75 crore for health, while it provided property tax relief for small flat owners ahead of civic elections. The budget of India’s richest civic body, ruled by the Shiv Sena and set for polls in the new few months, which has no proposal for new taxes, was 17.70 per cent higher than the last fiscal when the total outlay was Rs 39,038.83 crore.
Mumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal presented the budget before the civic standing committee meeting held at the BMC headquarters and said its main focus was on health, infrastructure and education. In the budget, the civic body announced 100 per cent relief from payment of property tax for flats measuring up to 500 square feet of carpet area.
”About 16,14,000 citizens will get 100 per cent property tax relief. The amount of exemption to citizens is to the tune of Rs 462 crore per annum,” Chahal said in his budget speech.On January 1, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had announced a decision to waive property tax for residential units of up to 500 square feet, located within Mumbai municipal limits.
Before presenting the general budget, the BMC also tabled its education budget of Rs 3,370.24 crore for the next fiscal. Education budget estimates were 14.45 per cent more than the last fiscal when the outlay was Rs 2945.78 crore.In the budget, the BMC estimated revenue income for FY23 at Rs 30,743.61 crore, of which Rs 11,429.73 crore will come from grant-in-aid as compensation in lieu of octroi, Rs 7,000 crore from property tax, Rs 3,950 crore from the Development Projects Department, Rs 1,128.74 crore interest on investments, and Rs 1,596.93 crore from water and sewerage charges.
The civic body kept various taxes and licence fees unchanged except targeting an annual revenue of Rs 174 crore by way of charging ’User Fees’ from waste generators.Further, the BMC targeted revenue of Rs 26 crore from ’User Fees’ and Processing and Disposal charges levied on 3,500 hotels that generate close to 300 tons per day of wet waste.
”The draft bye-laws incorporating the User Fees are currently under consideration and expected to be effective during FY 2022-23 after publishing notification by the Government of Maharashtra,” Chahal said.Chahal said the civic body has submitted two separate claims of Rs 1,417.32 crore and Rs 1,347.56 crore for reimbursement of COVID-19 expenditure up to September 30, 2021, to Mumbai city district and Mumbai Suburban district collectors, respectively, from the State Disaster Response Fund.
Out of Rs 6,933.75 crore for health, Rs 2,660.56 crore will be capital expenditure and Rs 4273.19 crore revenue expenditure.Out of the total budget outlay, the BMC has made budgetary estimates of Rs 23294.05 crore for revenue expansion and Rs 22,646.73 crore for capital expenditure that involves spending on development projects.
The civic body has allocated Rs 17,942.96 crore for the next fiscal for various ”prestigious” projects whose total cost comes to Rs 90,309.67 crore.Of it, Rs 3,200 crore has been allotted for the ambitious Mumbai coastal road project, Rs 1,300 crore for the Goregaon Mulund Link Road, Rs 1,340 crore for the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project, Rs 1,300 for Ashray Yojana for staff housing and Rs 565 crore for Mithi River project works, among others.
As per the budget, capital expenditure for FY23 will be Rs 2,200 crore for roads and traffic department, Rs 1,76.66 crore for the bridges department, Rs 2660.56 crore for the health department, Rs 147.36 crore for the garden department, Rs 115.46 crore for Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo, and Rs 200 crore for 200 MLD desalination plants.The civic body made a provision of Rs 3370.40 crore for the education department.
”With multiple innovative interventions and introduction of International Boards, the BMC is committed to take affordable quality education to the doorstep of common Mumbaikars,” Chahal said in his budget speech.For Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), a provision of Rs 800 crore has been proposed for assisting the loss-making undertaking and helping ”improve its functioning”.
For desilting of major and minor nullahs and the Mithi River ahead of the monsoon this year, provisions of Rs 80 crore, Rs 110 crore and Rs 46 crore, respectively, have been made in the budget.Furthermore, the BMC has announced to set up 200 Shiv Yog centres. Budget provision of Rs 25 crore for capital expenditure and Rs 5 crore for revenue expenditure have been proposed for the project in estimates for FY23.
The civic body, which has already adopted electric vehicles for its official department fleet, has decided to use such vehicles for garbage pick-up.”Small capacity e-vehicles (around 600 kg payload) fitted with bins or compartments for separate collection, storage and transportation of segregated wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste shall be deployed for house to house collection of garbage,” Chahal said.
A provision of Rs 1 crore has been proposed for creation of a Climate Action Cell as part of the Department of Environment. Apart from this, various departments have been given adequate budget provision for Climate Action Plan.This indicates that Mumbai is very serious about working towards its Net Zero (carbon emission) ambition. The BMC’s investment towards development of energy efficiency and Mumbai’s Parking Authority further confirms their endeavour towards this vision of decarbonisation, Madhav Pai, executive director, World Resources Institute, said.
Last year, Maharashtra environment minister Aditya Thackeray had launched the civic body’s Climate Action Plan.In the budget, a provision of Rs 10.30 crore has been made for hybrid energy project facilities of 20 MW installed capacity of hydro electric power plant and 80 MW installed capacity of floating solar PV power project at the Middle Vaitarna Dam.
Though we have to spend sizeable fund continuously this year also on healthcare facilities, I emphasise that we will take all efforts for execution of important projects within the given time-frame and with due consideration to financial cash flow situation, Chahal said.”Property tax has been waived for 500 square feet houses, but the budget has nothing for fishermen, auto drivers and some other segments, said Ashish Shelar, BJP MLA from Mumbai, criticizing the budget.
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