BMC's Budget to be Presented Tomorrow: Learn About India's Richest Civic Body, 'Sena Factor' This Time

The budget of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the fiscal 2023-24 will be presented on February 4, the first time since 1985 that the exercise is being undertaken when the term of the corporators have ended and the financial capital’s civic body is under an administrator.

The polls to BMC are pending due to factors like the coronavirus pandemic, delimitation of wards and OBC quota after the five-year term of corporators ended on March 7, 2022.

An official said additional municipal commissioners will present the budget to commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, who is also the state-appointed administrator, against the normal practice of the civic chief presenting the budget to the standing committee, which comprises corporators.

The BMC budget for 2022-23 was Rs 45,949.21 crore, which was rise of 17 per cent from the amount for 2021-22. While the budget is likely to be presented with an eye on the civic polls, there is no clarity when they will held, a report by PTI said.

Amid the development, a look at the BMC – the richest civic body in India – and its budgetary process:

About the BMC

• Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai is governed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is also known as the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).
• It is the wealthiest municipal corporation in India, and the annual budget of the BMC is more than that of a few of India’s smaller states.
• It was founded according to the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act of 1888.
• The BMC is in charge of the city’s and parts of the suburbs’ civic administration and infrastructure.

Some Interesting Details About BMC’s Budget

• In 2021-22, BMC’s Rs 39,038.83 budget was more than the budgets of eight state governments – Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim and Goa.
• Of the total Rs 45,949 crore budget for 2022-23, BMC had allocated Rs 3,200 for the coastal road project and Rs 6,933.75 crore for health, while it provided property tax relief for small flat owners. The civic body had waived off property tax for flats measuring up to 500 square feet of carpet area.
• While the civic body had kept various taxes and licence fees unchanged, it targeted annual revenue of Rs 174 crore by way of charging ‘User Fees’ from waste generators. Further, the BMC is projected to generate 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 BMC budget had recorded a jump across all verticals last year. The civic body’s education budget had risen by 14.45 per cent from Rs 2,945.78 crore in 2021 and moved up to Rs 3,370.24 crore for the fiscal year 2022-23. Out of Rs 6,933.75 crore for health, Rs 2,660.56 crore was for capital expenditure and Rs 4,273.19 crore for revenue expenditure.

The Shiv Sena Factor

The undivided Shiv Sena has ruled BMC for nearly 25 years, though the split in the party in June last year due to the rebellion of Eknath Shinde, who went on to become Maharashtra chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has changed equations, sources told PTI.

The state government, which has indirect control on the civic body due to it being under an administrator, will give the Shinde dispensation an upper hand in budget proposals and fund allocationB, these sources claimed.

Incidentally, a release issued on Thursday from the chief minister’s office (CMO) said Shinde had given inputs to the civic chief on various items to be included in the budget.

As per the CMO release, Shinde has directed to Chahal to include topics such as erection of air purification towers in the city for pollution control, conducting door to door screening of citizens suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure, setting up of skill development centres in municipal schools, beautification of city as well as transparency in civic administration.

The air towers to control pollution are to be erected on the lines of those in Delhi, Gurugram and Lucknow, while measures have also been suggested to increase the green cover of the country’s financial capital, the release said.

About 27 per cent of Mumbai’s residents are suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure and, hence, the need for a door to door screening to give people relief and to prepare data, it said. The CM has also asked Chahal to include points and measures in the budget to ensure good governance, the release added.

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