Corporators fear BMC might face a financial crisis soon

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The BMC clearing a proposal to grant Rs 400 crore to the BEST undertaking kicked up a debate in the standing committee meeting on Monday following which corporators pointed out that the country's richest civic body might soon slip into a financial crisis.

With questions about how to balance revenue and expenditure raised before the civic administration, the members demanded to be informed about the measures that the BMC would take in future to deal with the crisis. Standing Committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav said the administration should provide full information in the next meeting. Despite opposition, the committee approved the proposal to provide Rs 400 crore to BEST in addition to the Rs 600 crore that was given to it in June.

This is over and above the ongoing loan of Rs 1136.31 crore that BEST had taken from the BMC. The corporators also said that the development fee collected by the BMC might soon go to the MMRDA, increasing the possibility of a financial crunch.

Rajul Patel, Sena corporator and committee member, said, "BMC's revenue generated from the development planning department has declined as the development fee has reduced. And now if the MMRDA charges the fee instead of the BMC, what will happen to our employees? We also heard that after 2020 the state government would stop giving us GST compensation."

Ravi Raja, Opposition leader, said, "The administration had said that they would conduct an audit of the civic body's expenditures and share the report with us. Where is that report? And now again they gave a huge grant to the BEST. If this continues, what will happen to our employees?"

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