BMC general body gives nod to Rs 27,558-crore budget

The BMC has around Rs 9,000 crore in uncollected property tax.

Following 45 hours of discussions and arguments, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corpo-ration’s (BMC) general body on Tuesday approved the Rs 27,558-crore civic budget for 2018-19. Initially, the general body was supposed to pass the budget on Monday. Due to delays, mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar held a meeting with leaders of all political parties and decided to clear the budget on Tuesday. A leader of the opposition in BMC and Congress corporator Ravi Raja said, “We have opposed the hiked medical fees, and poor property tax collection. Besides, BMC has allocated a lot of money to big infrastructure projects.

However, the implementation is not systematic.” In January this year, BMC hiked municipal hospital charges by 20 per cent. The BMC has around Rs 9,000 crore in uncollected property tax. The arguments on Tuesday not only included accusations of opposition leaders and party group leaders, but some corporators even used shayari and humour to present their opinions on the budget. Following the high-voltage drama at the BMC headquarters that stretched till late in the night, BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta assured the general body that the expenditure of the civic budget would increase from 54 per cent to 85 per cent.

Mehta also said the property tax collection will increase by at least 200 crore above the target set by civic body. The civic had a target of Rs 5,200 crore to be collected before March 31, however, Mehta has claimed they would manage to collect Rs 5,400 crore.

Two weeks ago, the municipal standing committee approved the budget estimates for 2018-19, with some additional infrastructure projects, including a stadium, a football academy and a drama museum. Mehta had presented a Rs 27,258 crore budget for 2018-19 to standing committee chairman Ramesh Korgaonkar of the Shiv Sena. The budget was approved with an additional Rs 550 crore.The additions included Rs 1 lakh provision for an international-standard stadium, Rs 25 lakh for a cricket and football academy and Rs 10 lakh for a theme park proposed at the Mahalaxmi Race Course. Additional budgetary provisions were also made to promote Marathi — a scholarship of Rs 1 lakh for those opting for a PhD in Marathi, and Rs 25 lakh for cultural events such as Marathi Sahitya Sammelan and Marathi Natya Sammelan.