7th pay commission to cost Mumbai civic body, BMC, Rs 3,000 crore

The BMC plans cost-cutting measures after Monday’s budget allocated Rs 1,200 crore towards 7th pay commission implementation.

In a move that will impact the salaries and pensions of 2.20 lakh employees of the country’s richest municipal body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to implement the 7th pay commission from this year.

An amount of Rs 1,200 crore from the budget has been allocated towards expenses owing to implementation of the 7th pay commission(HT)

This will cost the civic body’s kitty a whopping Rs 3,000 crore in the form of arrears to be paid toward salaries and pensions of its staff, and has significantly burdened BMC’s revenue expenditure in the 2019-20 budget, forcing the civic body to undertake several cost-cutting measures to manage its finances. An amount of Rs 1,200 crore from the budget has been allocated towards expenses owing to implementation of the 7th pay commission. The budget presented by the municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Monday mentioned that the civic body will implement administrative reforms to curtail the establishment expenditure by managing the duties of the staff and their working hours and in the employment of new staff.

While this does not mean BMC will take to laying off its existing staff, it will certainly impact its hiring process. Mehta said, “We cannot halt hiring for essential posts such as those of teachers, doctors, nurses and engineers. But we may curb hiring for positions that are less important in this digital age, such as stenographers.”

Mehta also said the existing staff will be managed differently. There are departments that have surplus personnel and others that are short staffed. Rotation of the surplus staff will be done in a way to manage these vacancies. For example, staff from the Octroi department will be relocated to departments that need more hands. Establishment costs such as cutting down on electricity bills by using LED lighting, and by cutting down on municipal work that is not essential, will be on the cards. By cutting down on civic work that is not urgent or non-essential, the BMC plans to save up to 15% of its money.

On Monday, civic chief Ajoy Mehta presented the budget for the country’s richest civic body. No new taxes or hikes in existing ones, and a major fillip to infrastructure projects were the focus of the Rs 30,692-crore budget for 2019-20. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections , a major chunk of funds was allotted for infrastructure projects and the implementation of the Development Plan 2034. This year’s budget saw a 12.60% hike from last year. The BMC has decided to withdraw Rs 5708.77 crore of its Rs 75,538-crore reserve for funds this year.