more-in All shops and commercial establishments in the city will now have to pay user fee for the waste they generate. The civic authorities have started widening the user fee net and collecting advance user fee from shops and traders while renewing their licences. The Kochi Corporation hopes to generate anything between ?50 lakh and ?70 lakh a month by way of user fee collected from traders. At the time of licence renewal, traders will be allowed to self-assess the quantity of waste generated by their shops and pay fee accordingly. Later, squads of the civic body will visit the shops to ascertain the actual quantity of waste generated by each establishment and revise the fee, if required. Licence renewal begins in the month of February. User fee is collected from traders with effect from January, and licences are renewed only on payment of user fee, said V.K. Minimol, chairperson of the health standing committee of the civic body. A kilogram of biodegradable waste will attract a fee of ?3, whereas a trader will have to pay ?5 per kg of plastic or non-biodegradable waste. The cost of processing waste has significantly exceeded revenue from the sector. The civic body needs to strike a balance between income and expenditure of processing refuse, she added. Till recently, only those business houses and hotels that generated biodegradable waste were taxed. Fruit vendors and other traders who also contribute to waste generation will now be covered under the user fee regime. The management of non-biodegradable waste has also become a major headache for the civic body, Ms. Minimol said. It is estimated that there are around 50,000 traders in the city, and shops and trading units contribute to the waste generated. The revenue from user fee had dwindled over a period of time, dropping to a monthly average of ?18 lakh from the earlier ?25 lakh, thus affecting the resources of the corporation, she said, explaining the circumstances that led to the widening of the user fee network. Quantum of waste The civic administrators have estimated that an average of 235 tonnes of biodegradable waste reach its solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram. The quantity of solid waste, which includes plastic, wood, and mud comes to 145 tonnes a day, Ms. Minimol said. The civic body spends a lot on transportation of waste from various places to the Brahmapuram campus and its processing. For city residents, waste management comes almost free of cost. The amount they pay to agencies like Kudumbasree is for segregating waste and transporting it to various collection points, she added.

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