Revenue generation has become one of the hardest tasks for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) considering the fact that its income over the past five years has remained more or less stagnant. In the first half of the last decade, the income increased by over 55 per cent. While octroi remained the main source of income, property tax and earnings through the development plan (DP) department declined sharply due to the real estate crisis. However, the factors that worsened the situation in the second half of the decade were waiving off property tax for small houses and the civic body's inability to come up with new sources of revenue.

In 2011-12 the total revenue and capital income was R15,595 crore. In the next four years, though the octroi revenue remained the same, BMC's income rose sharply. In those five years property tax rose from R3,400 crore (2011-12) to R5,700 crore (2015-16 ) and development department revenue increased from R1,600 crore to R6,000 crore. As a result, the total revenue generation increased by 55 per cent to R24,267 crore.