BMC budget crosses 50,000 cr-mark in a first, 14.5% higher than last year

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in the country, on Saturday presented Rs 52,619.07 crore budget for the year 2023-24, with the budgetary estimates crossing the Rs 50,000 crore-mark for the first time.

The budgetary estimates this time are 14.52 per cent more than the 2022-23 amount of Rs 45,949 crore. The BMC administration presented the budget to municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, who was appointed as the civic body's administrator by the state government in March last year after the five-year term of corporators ended. "The budget estimates for the financial year 2023-24 are proposed at Rs 52,619.07 crore, which exceeds the budget estimates of 2022-23, that is Rs 45,949.21 crore, by 14.52 per cent," the budget document said. This is for the first time after 1985 that the administration of the richest municipal body in the country presented the budget to an administrator.

Addressing a press conference after the budget presentation, Chahal said, "This is for the first time in the history of BMC that the budget estimates have crossed the Rs 50,000 crore-mark." In the budget, the civic administration has allocated Rs 27,247.80 crore towards capital expenditure and Rs 25,305.94 crore towards revenue expenditure. Chahal also said that it is for the first time that the civic body is going to spend 52 per cent of the budget estimates on capital expenditure and 48 per cent on revenue expenditure. As per the budget document, Rs 3,545 crore have been allocated for the ambitious Coastal Road project that is expected to complete this year end, while Rs 1,060 crore are earmarked for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, which will reduce travel distance between Western suburbs of Mumbai and Thane city, and Rs 2,825 crore for traffic operations and roads projects. The actual capital expenditure of Rs 8,398.35 crore is incurred up to December 2022, which is 40.26 per cent of the revised estimates for FY 22-23, it said.

"Health, education, environment and transparent working are the four pillars of our budget," Chahal said. The polls to the BMC are pending. The elections got delayed due to factors like the coronavirus pandemic, delimitation of wards and OBC quota.