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.