A Solid Waste Management (SWM) tax is being considered by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for its residents. This tax may be imposed alongside the property tax bill and is intended to finance the operations, services, and infrastructure required to collect, transport, process, recycle, and dispose of garbage in an environmentally friendly manner.
According to the civic official, if this idea is approved, 26 administrative wards will contribute at least INR 100 crore annually. Solid waste management fees are already included in the property taxes of Thane and Navi Mumbai, two nearby cities. However, Mumbai has not yet implemented a comparable scheme.
In order to confirm the viability of the tax, the civic body has consulted its legal department; a definitive decision is anticipated only following the next assembly elections.
A civil official from the Solid Waste Management department said that they have submitted a proposal to the legal department for verification in order to amend the Solid Waste Management 2016 by-laws, but due to the election code of conduct, it will be decided after assembly polls. He also mentioned that they have not yet determined if they would use assessment tax to recoup the tax. Water and sewerage taxes are already collected by their assessment tax; thus, they are debating whether it should be collected separately or if it can be included in assessment taxes.
A lot of solid waste, such as kitchen and dry garbage waste, is produced all over the city. This waste is not separated at the source in most of the regions of the city. According to the 2016 Solid Waste Management Rules, bulk waste generators, particularly housing societies that occupy 20,000 square metres or produce more than 100 kg of waste daily, must separate their waste into dry and wet categories within their buildings.
Waste disposal has become inefficient as a result of numerous housing societies' failure to enforce these regulations.
The BMC tried to impose penalties on these societies in previous years, but some of the inhabitants filed a legal challenge, which caused the implementation of the penalties to be delayed.
Assistant engineers are enforcing sanctions at the ward level against those societies that do not adhere to this requirement. An official from the department said that they still impose these fees for producing garbage or through assessment fees while collecting property taxes, but other municipal corporations are implementing user fees, such as SWM fees.
The civic official went on to say that a public notice will be released for citizen suggestions and objectives following the pursuit of a legal opinion on this issue of waste management.
Following approval by the legal department, a public notice for objections will be published, and following elections, a final decision will be made. The municipal corporation would find it simpler to manage garbage disposal effectively with proper segmentation, an official from the Solid Waste Management department said.
Although apartments that are 500 square feet or less are exempt from property taxes, it will be decided to include them as well because they also produce solid waste.
Despite the municipal solid waste department spending a lot of money collecting and disposing of trash, it does not currently have a source of funding to support its operations.
The property tax collection and assessment divisions and the BMC's solid waste management department have been negotiating in recent months to decide on a suitable percentage for the proposed solid waste management fee.
Since the final decision has not yet been made, the BMC has now proposed to the law department that legal advice be sought before proceeding.
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