Bengaluru: Garbage woes continues to haunt the city, yet you may end up paying a higher cess. The State government is pushing for a steep hike in cess from the next fiscal.
Already smarting under a steep rise in property tax, property owners are in for another shock as the government plans to fix the cess at a flat 15 per cent of the property tax. So far, garbage cess was a nominal annual fee depending on the dimension of a property.
The move is expected to increase the burden on the property owners anywhere from 200 to 600 per cent. If the State government has its way, the new cess will come into force from April 1, 2017, sources said.
The hike, according to sources, is being sought to compensate Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike since the current cess collected from 16 lakh properties covers just about 10 per cent of its annual operational cost on solid waste management. Incidentally, the civic agency spent Rs. 572.2 crore in 2015-2016, but got just Rs. 50 crore as garbage cess.
The proposal has come from the Urban Development Department. Once approved by the BBMP council, the government is expected to amend the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 to implement the new cess.
However, the proposal has not gone down well with either the Expert Committee on Solid Waste Management, BBMP or civic activists. They argue that the burgeoning cost of garbage management is due to the civic body's inefficiencies and citizens cannot be expected to pay for them.
Thursday’s BBMP council meeting is expected to be stormy with the opposition BJP already announcing that it would contest the changes being sought.
