Mumbai: BMC collected less than 40 per cent income due to COVID-19 last year

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporationrsquos BMC budget for 20212022 will be presented on February 3 The last year was tough due to the COVID19 pandemic for the BMC and of its estimated income it managed to collect less than 40 per cent However its interest on FDs and compensation in the form of GST helped it sail throughThough the administration has said Rs 1700 crore was spent on tackling COVID19 corporators claimed it is much more The real sum will also include indirect losses as the pandemic shrunk reliable income sources of the corporation While the corporators also claim the administration is clueless about the new earning sources the officers are looking to recover past dues of property tax and watersewerage charges with stringent action service charges on slums tax from small houses etc The BMC is unlikely to hike direct taxes on citizens due to the upcoming civic electionEarnings shrunkThe BMC budget for 202021 was Rs 33441 crore It earned Rs 11616 crore till December 2020 but the total expenditure on project and administration was Rs 18693 crore Some of the extra expenses were settled with the reserve funds If the corporation doesnrsquot improve the earnings till March it will have to break more FDsAs per the budget the estimated income of the BMC is Rs 28000 crore The BMC could collect only Rs 11000 crore till December The FDs have shrunk by Rs 2455 crore in the past nine months Even interest of Rs 1000 crore from FDs was usedldquoThe administration said the expenses were due to the pandemic They sent proposals worth R1665 crore to the standing committee and took permission for an additional Rs 400 crore till March 2021 for the capital expenditure of COVID Other than that there is Rs 3200 crore expenditure shown under operation and maintenance which includes COVID Perhaps there are expenses under the Health and Solid Waste Management departments too But the real expense on COVID19 is still unknownrdquo said Prabhakar Shinde group leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the BMCldquoDespite being asked by the standing committee members in every meeting since the last week of October the administration hasnrsquot given the details of expenditure on COVID yetrdquo said Rais Shaikh group leader of the Samajwadi PartyCOVID19 expensesThe Jumbo COVID Centres were built by MMRDA CIDCO and Metro and BMC didnrsquot paid for them ldquoThe COVID19 pandemic expenses are around Rs 1700 crore mostly treated as revenue administrative expenditure which includes provided infrastructure like beds trollies wheel chairs medicines sanitisers food etcrdquo said P Velarasu additional commissioner of the BMCHowever this is only the direct cost of COVID The indirect loss of revenue is also in the incurred cost It not only affected revenue from service charges like property tax watersewer charges but reduced charges from infrastructure development Out of R16000 crore expected from these earnings the BMC collected only R3200 crore till the end of December which is merely 20 per cent ideally it should be 75 per cent Even after rolling out schemes for water sewer bills there is a lukewarm response from citizens who lost their earnings in the pandemic But despite the diminishing earnings the BMC got a helping hand through compensation in the form of GST ldquoThe BMC gets R816 crore per month from the state as compensation and till the end of December it received a whopping R7339 crore which is more than double than the earnings from other sources In addition to that R1000 crore was added to the kitty through the interest on FDsrdquo said a BMC officialPending duesThere are also more than Rs 15000 crore dues pending in property tax The BMC can earn R500 crore to R800 crore by levying property tax service charges on slums and small houses henceforth ldquoThe move to give paid service in civicrun hospitals can ease the burden on the health department where the BMC spends over R3000 crore annually Though there is strong opposition from citizens the corporation may give gardens on adoption policy But as there are upcoming elections there may not be an increase in direct taxesrdquo said an official Though the BMC managed somehow this year it will be a major task to manage financial goals and work in the next yearThe budget revenue and expendituregtgt Budget 202021 Rs 33441 croregtgt Estimated revenue till March 2021 Rs 28448 croregtgt Estimated income from reserve fundsubsidies Rs 4993 croregtgt Income till December Rs 11616 croregtgt Capital project expenses till December Rs 5745 croregtgt Revenue administration expenses till December Rs 12948 crore