Asia’s richest municipal corporation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has presented its budget for financial year 2019-20 today. BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta presented civic budget of Rs 30,692.59 crore for the year 2019-20, an increase of 12.60%.
The BMC has also claimed proposed mega infrastructure projects including coastal road, Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP), Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) and waste-to-energy plants as the reasons for the increase in the budget estimate.
Top Announcements of BMC Budget 2019-20:
1. BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta presented Rs 30,692.59 crore budget for the financial year 2019-20.
2. There has been around 15% hike in the BMC budget for 2019-20 which is Rs 30,692 crore. Last year, the civic budget was increased by approximately 10% to Rs 27,258.07 crore from its previous Rs 25,141.51 crore in 2017-18.
3. BMC presented Education Budget of Rs 2733 crore for year 2019-20 which was Rs 2569 crore last year. The civic body will spend mostly on revamp of BMC schools like music academy, playgrounds, CCTV cameras, digital classrooms and e-library to increase admission in public schools.
4. BMC has allocated Rs 100 crore in 2019-20 budget for other major projects like Goregaon-Mulund Link Road.
5. Budget provision for BMC’s 2019-20 budget for its roads and traffic department is Rs 1520.09 crore including repairing of roads and junctions in the city.
6. BMC will also construct language laboratory. The civic body has allocated Rs 1.30 crore to construct a language laboratory to develop the language skills of the students.
7. BMC also allocated Rs 1600.07 crore for its ambitious Coastal Road Project in its 2019-20 budget. Total cost of the project is Rs 12,969 crore.
8. BMC has allocated Rs 11,480.42 crore for the capital expenditure. Spending on development projects for improvement of the city’s infrastructure like roads, storm water drains, bridges, solid waste management and water projects are included.
9. BMC commissioner has stated that neither any hike in the rates of present taxes is proposed nor any new taxes have been imposed in the budget estimate for year 2019-20.
10. Gardens and zoo together will get Rs 387 crore
11. Fire brigade has got around Rs 201 crore for upgradation. It is one of the highest allocationsin the country.
12. Following BEST crisis, BMC has made a provision of Rs 34.10 crore for capital investment and improvement which will directly benefit passengers of BEST. Adding to it, Rs 10 crore provision has been given for employee welfare.
13. BMC has also allotted Rs 4151.14 crore (13% of total budget) for Public Health department and Rs 3323 crore for Development Plan.
14. BMC to set up state of the art multi-utility training simulator for hot fire training, confined search and rescue, vertical rescue, rope rescue.
15. New Mumbai Mayor’s residence to come up at Dadar’s Shivaji Park in a plot of 2745 sq metre. The construction will commence in the year 2019-20. A budget provision of Rs 1 crore is made in the budget 2019-20.
BMC had presented its highest ever budget of Rs 37,052 crore in 2016-17. However, it had slashed the budget by about Rs 12,000 crore and presented a more “realistic” and “practical” budget of Rs 25,141 crore in 2017-18. As per civic officials, Rs 37,052 crore budget was swollen as provision for many projects were made without realistically assessing whether they could actually be implemented.
In 2018-19, a budget of Rs 27,258 crore was presented by the civic body. The civic body managed to spend 25%-35% of the budget in the past few years. This fiscal, till December 31, civic body has spent about 37% and was also confident of crossing 50% expenditure mark by the end of financial year.
