Traders running their businesses from a space measuring up to 500sqft will not be required to pay a conservancy charge to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), the civic body’s mayoral council decided on Monday.
The exemption — which will benefit 90 per cent of traders, according to a KMC official — will not apply to hotels and restaurants even if their premises measure 500sqft or less.
Mayor Firhad Hakim said the decision was meant to exempt small traders from paying the conversancy fee. “Such traders will have to only pay the trade licence fee,” he said.
Since April 1, the KMC has made it mandatory for all traders to pay separately for clearing waste generated by businesses.
The charges, quite high, were triggering resentment, said officials of the KMC.
“Some people complained to us that the amount they have to pay the KMC now is more than five times of what they paid in the 2022-23 financial year,” he said.
“We decided in today’s mayoral council meeting that traders operating from a space less than 500sqft will not have to pay conservancy charges. They will only have to pay a trade license fee,” said the mayor.
Sources in the civic body said three BJP councillors met a senior KMC official on Monday and highlighted the “steep rise” in the amount traders now have to pay the civic body because of the separate conservancy charges.
“The owner of a 16sqft electrical shop has to pay Rs 2,500, up from Rs 320 he had paid in the last financial year. The trader is from my ward,” said Sajal Ghosh, the BJP councillor from Ward 50. The provision to collect conservancy charges has been there in the solid waste management bylaws for a few years, but the KMC was never strict in its implementation, said a mayoral council member.
The civic body has now put a condition to the renewal of trade licences — a trader cannot get his or her licence renewed without paying a conservancy fee.
“A trader gives an estimate of how much waste his or her establishment generates. Our employees verify the claim and fix the charge,” the mayoral council member said.
“For years the KMC has been collecting waste from commercial establishments without charging any fee. We wanted to change the system.”
The exemption will benefit more than 90 per cent of the traders because their establishments measure 500sqft or less, said a KMC official.
“Big players, who account for a small percentage of traders in the city, generate the bulk of waste. We will raise revenue from big players by making them pay for clearing their waste,” said the mayoral council member.