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

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday unveiled Rs 39,038.83 crore budget for the year 2021-22.

In a relief to citizens, no additional civic tax or licence fee was proposed in the budget by the BMC, the country's richest civic body that goes to polls early next year.

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

Municipal commissioner I S Chahal, who presented the budget before to the civic standing committee, kept the civic taxes 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 is expecting a revenue of a Rs 27,811.57 crore from various sources, including property tax, water and sewage charges, compensation in lieu of octroi and DP fees, which is Rs 636 crore less as compared to the Rs 22,448 crore estimated revenue of FY 20-21.

The budget does not make announcement about any new major infrastructure project and the BMC has focused on various ongoing development projects, besides health services, education and other facilities.

The civic body has estimated Rs 18,750 crore for FY 21-22 from the Rs 14,637.76 crore in FY 20-21 for the capital expenditure works, which includes traffic operation and roads (Rs 1,600 crore), Coastal Road project (Rs 2,000 crore), Water supply projects (Rs 1,232.17 crore), storm water drains (Rs 1149.74 crore), Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (Rs 1,300 crore) and sewage disposal (Rs 1,060.06 crore), among others.