Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to unveil its Budget Estimates for 2025-26 on Tuesday, February 4, at 11:00 am in the municipal headquarters’ assembly hall. The budget presentation will begin with the Additional Municipal Commissioner (Eastern Suburbs), Dr Amit Saini, outlining the Education Department’s financial plan to Municipal Administrator Bhushan Gagrani. Following this, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects), Abhijit Bangar, will present the overall budget estimates to Gagrani.

Key Infrastructure Projects To Likely Get Good Funds

This will be the third consecutive budget since BMC’s elected general body was dissolved in March 2022, with Gagrani continuing to oversee civic operations. The upcoming budget is expected to prioritise major infrastructure projects, particularly the Mumbai Coastal Road (Phase 2), connecting Versova to Dahisar and the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR), as they near completion. Civic officials anticipate substantial allocations to these projects, emphasizing their role in transforming the city’s connectivity.

A key focus of the budget will be the ongoing construction of seven Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in Mumbai, a massive initiative costing Rs 30,000 crore. These STPs are critical to improving wastewater management and addressing environmental concerns in the city.

Key Takeaways From Budget 2024-25

Looking back at the 2024-25 budget, BMC refrained from introducing new taxes while presenting a record-high allocation of Rs 59,954.75 crore. It earmarked major funds for major projects, including a Rs 1,200 crore provision for free medicines in civic hospitals.

The health sector saw a notable budget increase, from Rs 6,309 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 7,191 crore in 2024-25, reflecting the corporation’s focus on public healthcare. Other allocations included Rs 340 crore for footpath, lane and bylane upgrades and Rs 100 crore towards enhancing women’s security in the city.

Hopes High From This Year’s Budget

For the 2025-26 budget, civic authorities sought public feedback, receiving around 2,700 responses. Many of these submissions highlighted concerns about the deteriorating quality of BEST bus services, indicating possible budgetary attention to public transport improvements.

With expectations high, the upcoming BMC budget will likely continue its emphasis on large-scale infrastructure projects, healthcare and citizen-focused initiatives, shaping Mumbai’s urban development in the coming year.

Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray has criticised the Union Budget 2025, highlighting the absence of any specific allocations for Maharashtra despite it being the highest tax-contributing state.

Responding to the Union Budget in a social media post, Thackeray pointed out what he sees as a stark contrast between Bihar’s prominent mentions and Maharashtra’s complete omission. “Not a single mention of Maharashtra is an outright insult to the state that contributes the highest taxes, including one of the highest GST consistently,” he said.

The former minister questioned the budget’s approach to unemployment, noting that while the government speaks about income tax rebates, it fails to address how citizens can earn enough to qualify for these benefits. “When unemployment is at its highest, there’s no mention of a solution to it,” Thackeray remarked.

On infrastructure development, Thackeray criticised the government’s capital expenditure plans, alleging a “contractor-based economy” where “favourite contractors get contracts” resulting in “horrible roads” on major Maharashtra highways. He highlighted that while rupees 11.1 lakh crores was proposed last year, only rupees 10.1 lakh crores were actually spent.

Regarding aviation infrastructure, Thackeray questioned the government’s UDAAN scheme announcement for 120 new airports, specifically noting the omission of Pune’s new airport despite local demand and representation. He also raised concerns about previously launched airports that have since ceased operations.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader also addressed everyday challenges facing citizens, including increased transport fares and food inflation. “The common person still grapples with a hike in State Transport Buses and auto rickshaw fare hike in Maharashtra. The people still face inflation in daily market buys like onion, tomato, potato,” he stated, questioning the government’s strategy to make essential items affordable without reducing farmers’ income.

In a pointed reference to BJP’s past promises, Thackeray sarcastically remarked on Bihar’s budget allocations, wondering if the state had received the rupees 1.25 lakh crores package promised by BJP in 2015 and subsequent promises made in 2024.

Mumbai, Feb 1: Maharashtra Committee on Saturday claimed that the Union Budget is just a maze of numbers and mess, adding that the farmers are in crisis as they are protesting for the guaranteed price for their agricultural products but there has not been a single word about them in the budget.

“The highest number of farmer suicides are taking place in Maharashtra, while there is a demand for loan waiver for farmers, the BJP government has not announced loan waiver,” said Maharashtra chief Nana Patole.

He added that increasing the Kisan Credit Card limit from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh will not benefit the farmers.

“Inflation is increasing at a high rate, unemployment has increased tremendously, and there is no concrete plan for job creation,” he said.

He added that the Union government has announced that there is no tax up to Rs 12 lakh in income tax, but there is confusion in it too.

“It seems that this announcement had to be made for the benefit of the salaried class and middle class after BJP’s chariot stopped at 240 against its slogan of 400 plus,” he said.

He said that instead of providing substantial funds in the budget for the MGNREGA scheme, which provides employment to the poor in rural areas, the funds have been cut.

“There is no substantial provision in the budget for two important sectors, health and education. The promise of providing two crore jobs every year was made in 2014, but in the last 11 years, not only have jobs not been provided, but there is the worst unemployment crisis. There is no concrete policy in the budget regarding employment generation and jobs. The common man has not been given concessions to fulfil his dream of housing and GST has not been reduced,” said Patole.

He said that Bihar was mentioned consistently in the budget but no other state including Maharashtra was mentioned.

“Bihar is going to have Assembly elections soon, so the Finance Minister has deliberately mentioned Bihar in the budget. The negative response of the stock market immediately after the budget was presented means that this budget has not met the expectations,” he said.

Meanwhile, the party general secretary Sachin Sawant said that the budget has made it clear that the direction of economic policies has been wrong for the last ten years and the policy of the Congress party was right.

“For the last ten years, the government was focused on increasing supply. Corporate tax was reduced by Rs 1.5 lakh crore, but corporate profits did not increase and employment did not increase. Even though corporate loans were written off by banks, neither private investment nor exports increased. During this period, the current account deficit increased and the trade deficit did not decrease,” he said.

He added that the foreign direct investment, which was 3.6 per cent of the gross domestic product during the UPA government, came down to 0.8 per cent.

“Foreign institutions are fleeing the stock market as corporates are not making profits. However, the purchasing power of the people has fallen to its lowest level in the last twenty years,” said Sawant.

He added that the Modi government is the most failed, policy paralysed and economically ignorant government.

“It is clear how far the concept of a developed India is due to their inefficiency and how the monster of unemployment and inflation as well as huge economic inequality is swallowing the common man,” he claimed.