The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which unveiled its Budget for 2020-21 on Tuesday with the total outlay of Rs 33,441 crore, has been hit by the economic slowdown. Due to the economic slowdown, the civic body's earning has seen a drop of Rs 335 crore.
According to a report by NDTV, due to slump in the real estate sector and confusion over exempting houses less than 500 sq ft from the property tax net the BMC showed a deficit of Rs 335 crore in property tax collection.
"We used to get revenues from premium of land to the tune of Rs 3,000-3,500 crore. That has reduced due to inflation to Rs 2,500 crore. But we hope to make it up from various other avenues," BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said reported NDTV.
The total budget estimates for the next financial year are 8.95 per cent more than the last fiscal's budgetary outlay of Rs 30,692 crore, which was 12.5 per cent higher than the 2018-19 estimates. The BMC, however, is expecting the estimated revenue of Rs 28,448.30 crores from various revenue sources in the year 2020-21, which is 13.87 per cent more as compared to Rs 24,983.82 crore in FY 2019-20.
The civic body, however, slashed down the estimated revenue expenditure to Rs 18,797 for FY 20-21 from Rs 19,240 crore. For the first time, the BMC has given a Rs 1500 crore financial grant to cash-strapped Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking by making a provision in the budget. The undertaking provides public bus service to Mumbai, and neighbouring areas.
The BMC has also focused on various infrastructure projects, health services, education, and other facilities, in the budget. The BMC has allocated Rs 14,637 crore for FY 20-21 for capital expenditure works, which includes traffic operation and roads (Rs 2699.65 crore), Coastal Road project (Rs 2000 crore), water supply projects (Rs 1728.85 crore), stormwater drains (Rs 912.10 crore), and sewage disposal (Rs 870.94 crore), among others.
