No new taxes. That should come as a relief to Mumbaikars. But with the 2012 civic body elections on mind, the BMC seems to have worked out its arithmetic well.
No new taxes. That should come as a relief to Mumbaikars. But with the 2012 civic body elections on mind, the BMC seems to have worked out its arithmetic well. The civic body’s Rs21,096-crore budget — its biggest so far — proposes no new projects and no new taxes. The Rs46-crore surplus budget has a clear citizen orientation, with focus only on the ongoing projects.
Presenting it on Friday, civic chief Subodh Kumar indicated that the BMC needed to find new sources of income, otherwise it will have to impose new taxes in future. The civic body has eight to nine months to get all its pending work done. The election code of conduct is likely to kick in after that. Corporators and civic officials have already started expressing fears over delays in crucial projects.
The budget focusses mainly on projects like BRIMSTOWAD and concretisation of roads to ease the recurring problem of potholes and flooding during monsoon. Beautification of the city and computerisation of BMC are also priority areas. The budgetary allocation for the road and bridges department is Rs727 crore and for IT development is Rs166.86 crore.
The BMC plans to invite tenders worth Rs1,000 crore for the repair and reconstruction of roads.
The budget allots Rs8 crore for the beautification of Chimbai Seaface, Mahim Seaface, Prabhadevi seashore and Haji Ali seashore. The BMC plans to develop 16 theme gardens on priority basis. The budgetary allocation on this head is about Rs55 crore.
Health allocation gets a massive jump of 30% — from Rs1,672 crore last year to Rs 2,167 crore this year. To avoid octroi evasion on import of raw diamond, the commissioner has reduced the octroi chrages. It was 2% on raw diamond. It has been reduced to .01%. The civic body’s earning from it was Rs2 crore per year. “This would help the BMC’s octroi revenue from diamond go up to Rs9 crore,” said Subodh Kumar.
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