India’s richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), presented its Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 on Saturday, crossing the Rs 50,000 crore mark for the first time.
Proposed at Rs 52,619.07 crores, it is 14.52 per cent higher than the Budget estimate for 2022-23 which was Rs 45,949.21 crores.
This is the first time since 1985 that the civic body’s budget was tabled while the term of the corporators has ended and the civic body is under an administrator. The budget was presented to Municipal Commissioner and state-appointed administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal at the civic body headquarters in Mumbai.
The budget estimates focused on several issues including infrastructure, pollution, social initiatives and education. With Rs 27,247 crore earmarked for public infrastructure like roads, storm water drains and water projects, this is the first time in the history of the BMC that the capital expenditure is more than the revenue, civic body chief Chahal said.
Pollution
The BMC has planned to install air purifiers in five most crowded areas in the city: Dahisar Toll Naka, Mulund Check Naka, Mankhurd, Kalanagar Junction and Haji Ali Junction. Rs 25 crore has been earmarked for mitigating air pollution and sustainable waste management measures in the Budget Estimate of FY 2023-24.
The BMC also announced the ‘Mumbai Clean Air Initiative’ that will work towards three broad goals — curb pollution concentration, initiate a multi-level monitoring strategy for the city and decentralise planning and community health awareness to reduce personal exposure.
One lakh trees will be planted through ecologically sustainable planting practices, along Mithi, Mahakali caves, Swami Vivekananda Udyan, and Bharat Van Udyan in Marol. This is an urban greening project as part of measures to tackle pollution.
Additionally, the BMC announced that more charging stations for EVs in public parking areas owned by the civic body will be set up.
Education
The budget estimate for education for 2023-2024 has marginally reduced to Rs 3,347 crore as compared to last year’s Rs 3,370 crore.
Maths and Science centres will be set up in 88 primary schools in the city. After a successful pilot last year, leadership training will be administered to 120 civic school principles in the FY 2023-24 in association with the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management.
To create interactive classrooms, ‘talking walls’ are being set up in 245 primary schools with paintings and art based on class-wise curriculum content.
Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, selected secondary schools in the city will get skill development training courses starting June 2023.
A digital classroom project was also announced, similar to ‘Virtual Classroom’ initiative last year, which was backed by Aaditya Thackeray and scrapped in middle of the year. Under this, a systematic database of education curriculum will be created and classes and curricular activities will be carried out through LED smart boards.
Infrastructure
The BMC has earmarked Rs 27,247 crore for spending on public infrastructure like roads, storm water drains and water projects. Rs 3,545 crore has been allocated to the Mumbai Coastal Road Project this year.
Additionally, Rs 1060 crores has been allocated for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road project, which is expected to cut Goregaon-Mulund travel to 20 minutes, as per Mid-day.
The BMC has allotted Rs 800 crore to BEST. In 2022-23, BEST got a total of Rs 1,382.28 crore.
The BMC has also earmarked Rs 250 crore for various social impact initiatives in FY 2023-24. The fund has been allocated under various headers which include financial schemes for women, the differently-abled, transpersons, senior citizens and a women’s training scheme.
Revenue
In the financial year 2022-23, revenue from property tax was estimated to be Rs 7,000 crore which was revised to Rs 4,800 crore, a fall of Rs 2,200 crore. The actual income received upto December 31, 2022 is Rs 3,174.46 crore.
The estimated revenue income for 2023-24 is proposed at Rs 33,290.03 crore, which is Rs 2,546.42 crore more than the estimates of 2022-23.
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