Solid waste management cess may come down from 2016-17

There have been complaints about the cess being too high

Property tax payers in the city might get some relief in the next financial year as solid waste management cess being collected with the tax from the current financial year is likely to come down.

A committee of policy-makers in the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), which met a few days ago, decided to reduce the cess on residential buildings. The council of the civic body in its meeting last month formed the committee headed by Harinath, chairman of standing committee for taxation, finance and appeals, to revise the slabs of the cess after some councillors complained that the cess was too high.

The Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) too recently appealed Mayor Jacintha Vijay Alfred to reduce the cess on industrial units as it was very high.

Mr. Harinath told

The Hindu that the committee in its meeting had reduced the cess on residential buildings by half from the existing amount.

The committee would sit once again to discuss on reducing the cess on industrial buildings and commercial buildings. The decision of the committee would be placed before the council for its discussion and approval. If the council approved the revised slabs it would be notified.

Mr. Harinath said that the taxpayers would have to pay the cess as per the existing slabs in the current financial year. The revision would be effective only from 2016-17.

Section 103 (B) (2) of The Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, empowers the corporation to collect the solid waste management cess with property tax.

With the current slabs of the cess, the civic body is expecting Rs. 15 crore in the form of cess per year. Once the slabs are revised the revenue generated from the cess would come down.

The existing slabs had been decided when A.B. Ibrahim, Deputy Commissioner, was the administrator of the corporation.

It had been decided to introduce the cess from 2014-15. But it did not materialise as the door-to-door collection of solid waste had not been stabilised in the city during 2014-15. The corporation introduced the cess from 2015-16 after a Mumbai-based company was awarded the contract of solid waste management of all 60 wards in the city.