To provide a better waste management facility, the BMC is mooting a proposal to levy a solid waste management (SWM) fee on Mumbaikars. While civic officials have maintained that the objective behind imposing such a tax is to strengthen the civic body’s SWM infrastructure, sources in BMC also said the move aims at generating revenue as well.
Civic officials said municipal bodies are empowered by Government of India in Solid Waste Management Rules (2016) to impose a ‘user fee’ on citizens for better waste management. Officials said this fee would be an added component in the property tax bracket, which will be used to upgrade transport cost, recycling methodology and disposal of waste. BMC officials said the fee amount has not yet been decided.
“At present, municipal bodies like Pune and Delhi are already imposing this fee on citizens. Currently, there are 26 municipal wards and our target is to generate Rs 150–200 crore from these wards through this fee,” a civic official said.
BMC officials said municipal bodies in Pune are charging between Rs 100-500 depending on whether the entity is commercial or residential, and in Mumbai the proposed fees could be added as an additional component in the property tax bracket.
“Those owning properties less than 500 sqft are exempted from paying property taxes currently, but they may have to pay this fee once it is imposed. Under the property tax bracket, we already have the component of sewage taxes and water charges. The SWM fees will just be another component to it,” the official said.
Meanwhile, sources in the civic body also said that introduction of this new fee is aimed at generating additional revenue for BMC. The SWM department is one of the highest recipients of BMC’s budget, with the entire amount coming from BMC coffers. Since 2015, there has been no hike in property tax rates that are BMC’s primary source of revenue, which is also affecting its financial health.
“The entire SWM work requires a huge corpus, and rules mandate that housing societies should be responsible for waste segregation, which no one in reality is following, and for many years, no penalty too has been levied for this. Therefore, it is now crucial to introduce SWM fees in the city so as to provide better standards of services,” the officer said.
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