The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) budget will be presented today to the Standing Committee. It is expected that the civic administration will propose new charges or taxes, and schemes to collect pending dues to boost its income, which has seen a sharp dip due to dwindling property tax and Development Plan department charges (DP charges comes from real estate sector). The civic body might also try to allot more funds to ongoing projects like wastewater treatment plants, the Coastal Road, two bridges near Mahalaxmi station etc.

Last year the budget was Rs 30,692 crore. There may not be a drastic change in the budget size this year, but the civic administration is keen to increase its revenue. In previous years, municipal commissioners had introduced various charges including property tax on slum homes, one per cent surcharge on buying and selling of properties, and service charges for art and entertainment facilities to improve BMC revenue. But these weren't implemented. Even in the last budget, no additional taxes were introduced. So it is expected that there will be indirect taxes or an increase in charges.