Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), considered the richest civic body in the country, tabled its budget of Rs 74,427 crore for 2025-26 at its headquarters in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The additional municipal commissioners presented the budget to BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, the state-appointed administrator. BMC is currently run by an administrator since the term of the corporators ended on March 7, 2022. This is the third year of the budget being presented to the administrator, in deviation from the norm where the municipal commissioner presents the budget to the standing committee.

"The budget estimate for FY2025-26 is proposed at Rs 74,427.41 crore, which exceeds the budget estimates of 2024-25 i.e. Rs 65,180.79 crore, by 14.19 per cent," the budget document states.

In the budget, the education department has been allocated Rs 3,955 crore, BEST Rs 1,000 crore while a provision of Rs 5,100 crore has been made for the roads and transport department.

Special provisions have also been made for various projects underway in Mumbai including Rs 4,300 crore for the third phase of the Coastal Road (the elevated road from Dahisar to Bhayandar), Rs 1,957 has been allocated to the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road Project, the foundation stone of which was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BEST Bus Services

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, the second-largest public transport system in the metropolis after suburban trains, operates a fleet of around 3,000 buses, serving more than 30 lakh commuters daily. In the budget document, the BMC stated that despite its financial commitments, it has made the provision considering BEST's financial position.

"Although BMC itself has a huge requirement of funds towards its ongoing projects and other important objectives, a total provision of Rs 1,000 crore is proposed in 2025-26 as a grant to BEST undertaking considering its financial position," the document stated.

The funds will be used for infrastructure development, capital equipment purchases, loan repayments, wet lease buses, pay revisions, daily operations, the Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS) project, Diwali bonuses of employees, pensioner dues and electricity bills. The document also says that as per the state directives, BMC will contribute Rs 128.65 crore or its 5 per cent share towards the procurement and deployment of 2,000 electric buses for Mumbai. But it is not clear if the amount is part of the Rs 1,000 crore assistance or a separate provision.

The civic body also pointed out that since 2012-13, it has provided Rs 11,304.59 crore in financial assistance to BEST, which is financially bleeding and its accumulated loss amount calculates to Rs 9,500 crore. The document also noted that Rs 992 crore has been sanctioned by the 15th Finance Commission for BEST's electric bus purchases.

Of this, Rs 493.38 crore has already been received and disbursed, with the remaining Rs 498.62 crore will be provided once received.

Tax on Solid Waste

So far, there were only talks that BMC would levy a tax on solid waste and the budget has proposed the same. Gagrani said that it is necessary to impose a tax on waste collection due to the increasing cost of solid waste management. The final decision will be announced only after taking legal advice on this matter.

A provision of Rs 113.18 crore has been made for special climate change for Mumbai and the health department has been allocated Rs 7,380.43 crore. Mumbai Eye will be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model on the land of London Eye.

Meanwhile, a provision of Rs 25 crore has been made for the development of Koliwadis to turn it into a tourist destination and the fire department has been given Rs 261.71 core while for the disaster management department, the figure stands at Rs 309 crore.

A fund of Rs 220.12 has been allocated to the parks department and Rs 51.98 core has been set aside for the director of planning. The market department has been granted Rs 181.53 crore.

Tax on Slums

The budget has brought the commercial slum owners under the tax net as BMC eyes Rs 350 crore in revenue from it. There are about 2.5 lakh slums under BMC of which 20 per cent are used for commercial purposes such as industries, shops, warehouses and hotels. Property tax will be collected by assessing the tax on these business owners.

Boosting Tourist Footfalls

BMC has made provisions to increase the number of tourists and animals like penguins, tigers, lions, zebras, giraffes and jaguars will be translocated to Rani Bagh to make it a new tourist attraction. A tiger sculpture will be installed at the underground tunnel of Sanjay Gandhi National Park.