No new taxes, infra gains in BMC’s ₹33K-cr budget

No new taxes, a slight hike in service fees to obtain birth certificates or trade licences, focus on infrastructure projects and tourism, and a ‘Vision 2030’ for

No new taxes, a slight hike in service fees to obtain birth certificates or trade licences, focus on infrastructure projects and tourism, and a ‘Vision 2030’ for the city were the main features of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) budget for 2020-2021.

HT Image

Civic chief Praveen Pardeshi on Tuesday presented the ₹33,441.02-crore budget of the country’s richest civic body, 8.95% more than last year’s budget of ₹30,692.59 crore. Citing the economic slowdown, the BMC has also mentioned several cost-cutting measures, including a freeze on recruitment.

Pardeshi did not announce any new projects, but has allocated major funds for the coastal road (₹2,000 crore), the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (₹300 crore), Gargai Dam (₹503 crore), upgrading sewage treatment plants and setting up a waste-to-energy plant at Deonar dumping ground. With the coastal road a dream project of CM Uddhav Thackeray, whose party, Shiv Sena, rules the civic body, the budget provision for the same has increased by ₹400 crore from last year. Similarly, the link road’s allocation was ₹100 crore last time and the Gargai project’s was ₹122.90 crore. Besides infrastructure, there was a substantial increase of funds for health and education.

The BMC, for the first time, has allocated ₹183 crore for tourism, and a separate department will be opened. The BMC also plans to open up its guesthouses for tourism on a public-private partnership basis. The budget has allocated ₹1,338 crore for stormwater drainage and flood mitigation, followed by ₹5 crore for constructing underground tunnels to hold excess rainwater.

Pardeshi said, “This budget is the first step towards improving the indicator of civic services to a global level. We intend to achieve world-class roads, robust public transportation and bridge missing links. We are focusing on pure and reliable water supply, environment sustainability, primary education, preventive and primary healthcare services. We aim to make Mumbai a climate-resilient city.”

Further, the budget has also paved the way for public-transport promotion by allocating ₹1,500 crore for BEST buses. However, this year, the BMC has curtailed dedicated funds for improving footpaths, from ₹100 crore last year to ₹50 crore, while ₹80 crore has been allocated for a makeover of Byculla zoo.

Capital expenditure was pegged at ₹14,637 crore, an increase from ₹11,480 crore in the previous budget. The civic body plans to dip into its funds of ₹79,829 crore, deposited with various banks, by withdrawing from it for infrastructure projects and has decided to draw ₹4,380 crore from it this year. The BMC has also earmarked significant funds to be eventually used for long-term big ticket projects, upgrading municipal hospital buildings, Mumbai sewage disposal project, augmentation of drinking water pipelines and Mithi River beautification.

On improving and constructing roads in the city, the BMC has allocated ₹1,600 crore, which is 9% higher than the allocation in 2019-2020.

On construction and maintenance of bridges in the city, the BMC has allocated ₹799 crore, which is more than the Rs389 crore allocated in the 2019-2020 budget.

A total of ₹402 crore is being allocated for reuse of recycled wastewater and rainwater harvesting, followed by ₹50 crore for beautification of rivers, beaches and ₹48 crore for construction of eight missing links. The BMC budget also talked about looking into 37 blackspots (accident-prone areas) in the city.

With this being the second budget after Mumbai’s development plan 2034 (DP2034) was approved by the state in May 2018, the BMC has allotted a whopping ₹3,248.73 crore towards implementation of the development plan and developing 42 of the 142 proposed civic amenities, such as toilets, parking lots, municipal dispensaries or schools. Meanwhile, on the health and education front, the BMC has allocated ₹4,260 crore and ₹2,944 crore respectively.

As a precaution in countering coronavirus, a provision of ₹2 crore has been allocated for the civic body’s Kasturba Hospital, which has the city’s only isolation ward.

Ravi Raja, leader of Opposition in the BMC, said, “This year’s BMC budget is full of tall promises and big dreams, but in reality, the completion of infrastructure projects at a speedy pace should be the focus. Citizens expect more groundwork than just mere announcements of big-ticket projects.”

Godfrey Pimenta, an activist from Watchdog Foundation, said, “This seemed like a balanced budget. A separate department for tourism and changes in road-repair works are welcome moves. However, there should be equal focus on developing basic public amenities such as roads. Citizen involvement in budget- making is also important.”