Get ready to pay user fee for garbage collection from Jan 1

Building owners within the Greater Chennai Corporation will have to pay user charges to the civic body for removing garbage from January 1 as per Solid Waste Management Rules, 2019. The move to collect user charges was to start from April 1, but was postponed due to COVID-19 lockdown.

An official release from Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said that the Solid Waste Management Rules that the civic body drafted was approved by the State government through an order dated January 10, 2020, and it was published in the Chennai District Gazette on February 11.

As per the new rules, the civic body would collect user charges based on the size and usage of buildings. Residential building with built area up to 500 sqft would have to pay Rs 10 per month the civic body. For residential buildings with built area between 501 sqft and 1,200 sqft, the fee would be Rs 25. The charge would be Rs 50 and Rs 100 respectively for residential buildings with a built-up area between 1,201 sqft and 2,400 sqft, and residential buildings above 2,401 sqft.

In the case of commercial establishments and schools, places of worship, the charge for collecting waste would be Rs 500 per month. For the events to be held in open public spaces, except funerals and government awareness activities, the civic body would collect Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 per event based on the number of persons participating.

Even though user charges would be calculated on a monthly basis, the building owners would have to pay the charges only once in six months along with property tax. According to a rough estimation by officials, the civic body would earn Rs 60 crore to Rs 70 crore per year by collecting user charges.

Apart from user charges, the civic body would also collect penalties for littering in public, non-segregation of waste, burning of solid waste and littering in waterbodies. The penalties would range from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000.