Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Budget 2024-25: Revenue, Spending and Development Priorities for Mira-Bhayandar Elections
The Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) presented a record budget for 2024-25 that frames the administration’s priorities ahead of municipal elections, balancing revenue-generation targets with allocations for infrastructure, services and social sectors.
Overall size and fiscal posture
MBMC’s 2024-25 budget reached an unprecedented scale, with total estimates running into several thousand crores and a narrowly projected surplus, signalling a cautiously optimistic fiscal stance while relying significantly on state transfers and borrowing to fund capital works.
Main revenue sources
Property tax remains the single largest source of own-revenue for the corporation, with the budget estimating a substantial contribution from assessments and improved collection efforts. Other recurring revenue streams highlighted in the budget include user charges such as water bills, fees from the fire department, and various municipal levies including development fees and road-cutting charges.
Grants from the state and central governments, along with planned loan financing, form a major part of the resource envelope for 2024-25, reflecting the MBMC’s dependency on intergovernmental transfers to sustain its capital programme and bridge the gap between operating receipts and outlays.
Expenditure priorities
The budget prioritises a mix of recurring expenditures — salaries, maintenance and service delivery — and a sizeable capital investment programme. Administrative costs, including payroll for existing staff, continue to absorb a significant portion of the revenue budget, while vacancies in sanctioned posts underscore ongoing manpower management challenges.
Capital spending is oriented towards basic urban infrastructure: road concretisation, water supply augmentation, sewerage and drainage improvements, and sanctioned works to improve street lighting and solid waste management. The plan also earmarks funds for routine civic services such as health clinics, primary education infrastructure and municipal markets.
Infrastructure and connectivity
A central plank of the budget is improving physical connectivity across the twin-city through an expanded road network and targeted concretisation drives intended to replace problematic stretches of unpaved or poorly maintained roads. The budget’s capital allocation signals an effort to accelerate visible, vote-sensitive infrastructure works that can be delivered within the electoral cycle.
Health, education and environment
Allocations for municipal health services, primary education facilities and environmental initiatives appear as steady priorities, with funds channelled to strengthen primary health centres, upgrades to municipal schools and solid waste processing schemes. The budget also emphasises preventive measures, sanitation drives and public health monitoring, reflecting lessons from recent public health challenges.
Revenue mobilisation and efficiency measures
To augment receipts without raising headline tax rates, the MBMC budget highlights measures to broaden the tax base and improve compliance, including enhanced property tax collection drives and monetisation of non-tax assets such as advertisement rights and municipal markets. Administrative emphasis on trimming avoidable expenditure and institution-building for real-time project monitoring is intended to improve delivery efficiency and reduce cost overruns.
Social safety nets and citizen services
Targeted welfare allocations remain part of the budget mix, with provisions for support to vulnerable groups, assistance schemes administered through municipal channels, and investments in services that disproportionately benefit lower-income localities, such as street lighting, sanitation facilities and drinking water infrastructure.
Governance, transparency and implementation risks
The MBMC leadership frames the budget as focused on transparent working and time-bound completion of projects, proposing strengthened oversight and monitoring mechanisms. However, risks to implementation include reliance on state grants and loans, delays in project clearances, and the administrative challenge of filling vacant posts that are crucial for execution. Operationalising real-time project monitoring and improving procurement and contract management will be key to translating budget allocations into on-ground results.
Political context and electoral relevance
Presented in an election year, the budget’s emphasis on conspicuous local infrastructure, health and service delivery can be read as aligning fiscal choices with immediate electoral priorities. Investments in road concretisation, water infrastructure and visible sanitation improvements are likely intended to generate quick, localised benefits that resonate with voters.
Looking ahead
For MBMC, the immediate challenge is converting broad allocation promises into completed projects while maintaining fiscal prudence. Strengthening revenue administration, focusing capital spending on high-impact, deliverable works, and tightening implementation oversight will determine whether the 2024-25 budget becomes a platform for sustained urban improvements or remains a transactional tool in the electoral cycle.
As municipal elections approach, stakeholders — voters, political contenders and civic managers — will be watching whether the budget’s stated priorities translate into measurable improvements in daily urban life across Mira-Bhayandar.
