BMC presents Rs 52,619-cr budget with big capex push of Rs 27,427 cr

With Mumbai facing poor air quality for over three months now, the BMC announced a seven-step policy for mitigating air pollution in the city.

The move comes after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, earlier this week, instructed the BMC to set up air purifier towers in Mumbai. Starting November 2022, till the first week of February this year, Mumbai has experienced air quality in the poor and very poor categories most of the days.

In its budget, the BMC has coined Mumbai’s ‘Air Pollution Mitigation Action Plan’ (APMAP). Under this, the civic body aims to curb air pollution levels across various sectors, initiate multi-level monitoring strategy as well as adapt a decentralise planning system to implement the measures. The BMC has earmarked Rs 25 crore for this.

This is also the first time in the last 37 years and only the second time since the BMC’s formation in 1889, that the annual civic budget was presented by a state-appointed Administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal, who is currently the sole authority in the civic body since the term of the legislative body of corporators has ended and there is no incumbent mayor.

In a first this year, BMC’s capital expenditure is estimated to be higher than the revenue expenditure. The BMC has allocated Rs 27,427 crore for capital expenditure or about 52% of the total budget, which will be spent on infrastructure works and development projects. About 48% or 25,305.94 crore will be the revenue expenditure. Capital expenditure has seen an increase of Rs 30.63% over last year’s revised budget outlay.

The BMC has also estimated revenue collection of Rs 33,290 crore for this year, which is Rs 2,546 more than that of last year. Also, being an election year, the BMC hasn’t introduced any new taxes.

The primary sources of revenue include grant-in-aid on account of compensation in lieu of Octroi, income from property tax, real estate premiums, interest from investment and water and sewerage charges.

Besides, the BMC has proposed withdrawing Rs 5,970 crore from its reserves as an internal loan. Civic officials said the same will be replenished by end of the next financial year, as BMC tends to generate revenue through several sources.

Chahal stated that the fiscal health of BMC has deliberately improved over the last one year, with the reserved funds increasing to Rs 88,000 crore from Rs 77,000 crore.

Speaking on the overall outlay of the budget, Chahal told medispersons that the BMC this year had received 965 suggestions from people related to the budget.

“Since there was no elected representative, we had sought objections from the people… many of which were incorporated in the budget. For example, we have allotted Rs 180 crore to maintain gardens and open spaces. Also based on their inputs, we have come up with a pedestrian first policy,” he said.

In the budget, the highest allocation has been made for key infrastructure projects, which includes an overall fund of Rs 3553 crore for the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP), Rs 3,630 crore for roads and traffic department, Rs 3179 crore for the bridges, Rs 3,266 for Storm Water Drains (SWD) and Rs 4,710 for solid waste management.

During his budget speech, Chahal said that the key focus of this budget is to give the infrastructure of Mumbai a much-needed push. He added that in 2023, the BMC will initiate the second phase of MCRP, which will connect Versova in western suburbs to Dahisar in northern end of the city.

A separate tender for a link road between Dahisar and Mira-Bhayander was floated by the civic body last year.

“The first stretch of the coastal road is set to be finished by end of this year, in the next five years, we aim to finish the entire coastal road project and connect Nariman Point with Bhayander,” Chahal added.

He also asserted that by the end of 2026, all existing roads in Mumbai will be concretised.

Meanwhile, with BMC polls set to be later this year, the civic body has allotted Rs 250 crore for various social impact initiatives that would benefit lower income groups and others like the transgenders, senior citizens and women.