Mumbai: The Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board (MBRRB) which was supposed to increase the repair cess to Rs 500 from Rs 250 per month which is collected from the tenants living in Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) which it has redeveloped and still own. These are located in South Mumbai. MHADA has postponed the hike after tenants opposed this move, said Vinod Ghosalkar, Chairman of MBRRB on Thursday.
He said they have a huge target despite which they have agreed to roll back the hike. “We usually spend Rs 40 crore for the repairs of these 366 MHADA buildings. In fact through the repair cess that is collected, we manage to get only Rs 8 crore. The remaining amount we take from MHADA and Mumbai board. Even the hike would have not help our board,” Ghosalkar.
He also pointed out that the administration had proposed to increase the repair cess to Rs 2,000 from Rs 250, but the local representatives including him had proposed to double the amount. However, the decision to hike the cess if at all and think of alternatives has been postponed till the day of 2019 Lok Sabha results, May 23.
Ghosalkar said, “The tenants argued that it is not just the MBRRB, in fact even they shell out money to carry out repair work. Therefore, increasing the repair cess will further burden their pockets.” Their argument is, despite charging the repairs cess, the MBRRB does not undertake the repair work annually.
