Bescom to help BBMP collect the user fee

Appropriate mechanism for the collection of the user fee for garbage disposal is a challenge the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will face when the user fee model comes into force.

BBMP Special Commissioner for Solid Waste Management Randeep Dev says that the Palike will take the help of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) to collect the user fee every month.

Bescom staff who visit households every month to give electricity bill will also bill for waste disposal services. If someone does not pay the amount, then Bescom will report it to the BBMP, and the BBMP will enforce it, says Randeep.

The fee is nothing but a charge for the BBMP coming and picking up waste from houses, just like the water and electricity charges, he explains.
The service has been free of cost so far, now on it will have a fee. A minimal amount of Rs 200 will be charged per household.

However, Randeep says there will be slabs in the fee for various kinds of households, depending on income groups. Lower-income groups will fall under the minimum slab.

"We are also saying that in case you compost your waste, there will be some kind of rebate in the fee," he says, indicating that managing one's own waste will be incentivised.

Why is this necessary? The BBMP estimates Rs 175 crore to be collected annually by way of solid waste management cess from property tax. The state has sanctioned Rs 900 crore over three years for infrastructure expenditures for solid waste management (SWM). There is no other support from the central government either for the operations and maintenance, for which BBMP needs to generate its own funds.

Randeep estimates the fee to be collected at about Rs 200-300 crore per annum. BBMP annual expenditure for SWM is over 1000 crores, and this fee will help meet some of the expenditure incurred, and empower BBMP to give better services to the public, he says.