Staring at near empty coffers due to the massive spending towards ramping-up the medical infrastructure for battling the Covid-19 pandemic in the twin-city, compounded by a significant dip in revenue, Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) chief-Dilip Dhole on Monday presented a Rs.1,817. 90 crore draft budget tagged with a meager surplus of Rs.30 lakh to standing committee chairman Rakesh Shah (BJP) for the fiscal year 2022-23.
This is the election year and no tax hike has been proposed. While the total anticipated revenue stands at Rs. 1,817.90 crore, the expected expenditure has been pegged at Rs.1, 787.40 crore. Last year the budget figures stood at around Rs. 1 509 crore.
The MBMC anticipates enhancing its revenue by over 20 percent by tapping new avenues like- assessing new property, introducing tax on parking bays, creating new parking zones, and commercializing treated water from sewage plants.
The MBMC will also introduce the concept of Heritage Walks in the twin-city. Terming the budget as realistic and transparent, MBMC chief- Dilip Dhole said, “Apart from giving a major importance to environment-friendly initiatives, we will train our focus on tapping new avenues of revenue generation so that enhancing basic facilities and completing existing infrastructure projects in a time-bound manner.
We will try to trim and eliminate avoidable expenses.” Unlike MBMC’s age-old tradition, this year the civic administration has refrained from inflating figures in the budget. For the first time in the history of the civic body an Environment Department having initial budgetary allocation amount Rs. 1 crore will be created.
Notably, the MBMC has bagged the CCR A/ Stable ratings from CRISIL for strong operating finances and healthy financial risk profile for the current fiscal, this despite the fact that the administration was under tremendous pressure while handling the pandemic which had reached alarming levels in the twin-city. “We will discuss the draft budget this week and table it for a final approval before the general body. It will ensure that civic amenities are enhanced and funds are put to use in a concrete and transparent manner.” said Rakesh Shah.
