BMC plans to raise hawking charges; unions threaten protest

Witnessing a southward revenue, the BMC has proposed a hike in hawking charges. Presently, the corporation is working on a new hawker policy where pitches on footpaths will be allotted to the city’s licensed hawkers and once the pitches are allotted, hawkers will be charged new tariffs.

According to the proposed tariffs, mobile hawkers will be charged Rs50 instead of Rs25 a month, while hawkers with handcarts will be charged Rs140 monthly instead of Rs70. Hawkers given pitches on footpaths will have to pay Rs270 while those with licensed stalls will pay Rs1,500 a month. A senior official of the BMC’s license dept stated the hike will boost the yearly revenue by at least Rs10 crore. He mentioned that the body will restrict the illegal hawkers that leads to encroachment on footpaths.

“We are working on a new policy of the hawkers. As soon as the policy-making is complete, the hawkers will have to pay as per the new tariffs,” said the official.

Under the new policy, the BMC will allot hawking pitches to over 15,000 hawkers. “We will also be doing ground-level surveys to examine the authenticity of the licensed hawkers. The illegal hawkers will be removed and invite legal action,” he said.

The decision has not gone done well with hawker unions, who have warned of agitation. Chandrakant Rao, the city hawkers union member, stated the body had promised to relocate the hawkers of Dadar and Prabhadevi. However, it did not keep its promise. The hawkers could not agree on the new charges even if provided with new space to do business.

“We were promised relocation in 2018, which didn’t occur. Hawkers are denied license despite having valid documents so civic officials can charge them later. It is clear extortion and the union will oppose it,” Rao said. The proposal will tabled for review before law committee later in February.