BMC blinks, agrees to put fire service fee on hold

BMC planned to levy one-time fee on certain buildings

Faced with opposition from corporators across parties at its standing committee meeting, the civic administration on Friday put on hold its contentious plan to levy a one-time fire service fee on new buildings. The BMC said it will first survey the structures before taking a call on the fire service fee.

The fire brigade recently issued a circular saying the fire service fee should be collected from developers or owners/occupiers or architects of the buildings constructed between March 3, 2014, and June 6, 2021. With the occupation certificate given to buildings, it meant that the component would be levied on housing societies. Besides this, the recovery of the annual fee, about 1 per cent of the fire service fee, will be added to the property tax of the buildings, said the circular.

During last week's standing committee, corporators had unitedly slammed the move, forcing an adjournment. But the civic administration did not budge. On Friday, Prabhakar Shinde, group leader of the BJP, raised the issue again. "The fee should have been taken in 2014. Why the administration delayed it for so many years?" he asked.

Rakhi Jadhav, group leader of the NCP, and Vishakha Raut, leader of the house, also opposed the move.

Standing committee chairman Yashvant Jadhav asked the administration to submit a statistical report on the number of buildings constructed from 2014. Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said, "The administration is working out the strategy on not to burden housing societies. We will submit the statistical report to the committee and until then temporary hold the decision."