The collection of user charges from households by civic bodies across the State has been turned into a major poll issue by opposition parties ahead of the general elections in the State.
On October 2, 2021, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP)-Jagananna Swachha Sankalpam programme, in accordance with the Centre’s urban reforms under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. As part of the CLAP programme, a fee for collecting garbage from households was introduced.
At present, civic bodies in the State collect ₹30 per household per month in slums and ₹120 from individual houses and apartments. The charge varies from ₹200 to ₹15,000 per month when it comes to business establishments.
“When we are already paying for garbage collection in the form of a separate component under property tax, what is the need for civic bodies to impose an additional burden on the common man in the form of garbage collection tax? Is it not the constitutional duty of the civic body to collect garbage from streets and households?” asks M.V. Anjaneyulu of the Taxpayers’ Association in Vijayawada.
What is interesting to know is that the tax thus collected from households does not go to the municipality, but instead to the private agency that provides the CLAP vehicles. In Vijayawada, for example, nearly ₹1.20 crore that is collected in the form of user charges on garbage collection goes to an agency which provides the CLAP vehicles and pays the drivers, says a civic official requesting anonymity.
There are a total of 225 CLAP vehicles in the city.
“We were initially told that the money collected from us would also go towards garbage segregation. However, this does not seem to be happening. In Anantapur, for instance, there is no segregation being done. Moreover, the CLAP vehicles did not come for three months recently,” says A. Chandra Sekhar of the Human Rights Forum (HRF).
“The municipalities are called local bodies for a reason. The local needs of the people are meant to be looked after by the local bodies, while their larger needs are taken care of by the governments. Thirty years ago, we used to have municipal hospitals. Now, these are nowhere to be seen. Municipal schools are also gradually disappearing. Sanitation is one of the few areas left under the care of municipalities, and now, they are shirking their responsibility here as well. The very purpose of having a local body is thus defeated,” Mr. Chandra Sekhar continues.
While many people have outright refused to pay the tax, nearly 80% of the residents of Vijayawada are learnt to be paying it, according to information.
When it comes to business establishments, the owner of a three-star hotel in Vijayawada said that hotel owners have represented to authorities about how garbage tax is a component of the trade licence that they pay yearly. “For the three-star hotels, the licence fee is ₹46,000. And then, we have to pay ₹3,000 separately as garbage tax,” the owner rues.
One of the stated goals of the programme was to generate power out of waste. However, Mr. Anjaneyulu points out that while most of the 600 tonnes of waste generated every day from Vijayawada is ferried for power generation to the Jindal plant near Guntur, there is no clarity on who the consumers are and who is benefiting from this.
The garbage collection tax and hikes in electricity charges and property tax are all important issues that we are focussing on across the State, say political leaders from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and CPI(M).
“There has been no improvement in the civic infrastructure such as roads and drains in Vijayawada in the last five years. There is not a single garbage disposal plant either. . All that the YSRCP government has done is to levy taxes without giving any benefits to the public,” says TDP national spokesperson K. Pattabhi Ram.
