BMC to Recover Fire Service Fees from Builders and Annual from Residents

The fire service fees will be recovered by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from the builders and annual fees from the residents despite a civic standing committee directive built to stall the circular. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a statement stated that the annual fees which have been unresolved from 2014 will be retrieved just from the builders and not the residents. The annual fees will have to be paid by the housing societies from July 2021 every year and that will be added to their property tax. 

 

“The time the building is approved the fire service fee will be recovered. With this there will be no load on the common citizen as the fees will be recovered from builders. This fee will be charged as per the minimum fees directed in law and there is no hike put forward on this amount,” said the fire brigade stated.

 

Earlier, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee was postponed over the BMC move to retrieve fire service fees and annual fees from builders and housing societies. The Corporators entitled this step as unjust and asked the civic administration to stick to the recovery process. 

 

“This is a scam of Rs 5,000 crore. The circular had to be discarded, which has not been done. Now builders will eventually pass on the cost to residents. The Municipal Commissioner has not been fixing the responsibility on fire brigade officials. There should be an investigation by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and FIR should be filed with the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police.” Stated BJP Corporator Vinod Mishra.