LAHORE: The Punjab government is planning to charge the citizens for waste collection services in seven districts of Punjab where solid waste management companies are operations, Daily Times has learnt. The proposed plan codenamed ‘Revenue Generation Plan’ will enable the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) alone to rake in 4.02 billion per year after 80 percent recovery of garbage collection fee from housing, commercial and industrial units. A LWMC official, requesting not to be named, said that that revenue collection by the LWMC would reduce expenditure burden of the company to some extent, if not all. He said that six solid waste management companies working in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur would replicate the revenue generation plan after its formal approval. “According to proposed revenue generation plan, household units, commercial units, industrial units, sale of waste, recycling, waste to energy, contracts with autonomous bodies could be main sources of revenue generation for the LWMC.” As per the plan, a housing unit will pay the LWMC Rs 100-600, commercial unit Rs 525-2,000 and an industrial unit Rs 700-5,000 for garbage collection services per month based on the DCO-designated value in different areas. According to the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) data, 843,580 housing units, 171,788 commercial units and 40,535 industrial units are present in the city, while according to the Bureau of Statistics data there are 750,064 housing units, 146,400 commercial units and 36,000 industrial units in the provincial capital. A housing unit having DCO property value ranging between Rs 30,000 and Rs 150,000 will be charged Rs 100 a month for garbage collection per month while Rs 600 will be charged from a housing unit having DCO property value ranging between Rs 500,001 and Rs 2,600,000. Similarly, Rs 180 will be charged against the property worth Rs 150,001-300,000, Rs 270 against the property worth Rs 300,001-600,000, Rs 375 against the property worth Rs 600,001-1,000,000 and Rs 480 against the property worth Rs 1,000,001-1,500,000. Moreover, Rs 525 will be charged from commercial units having DCO property value worth Rs 60,000-250,000, Rs 1,125 form units worth Rs 2,500,001-6,000,000, Rs 1,600 from units worth Rs 6,000,001-1,000,000, Rs 1,800 from units wroth Rs 1,000,001-1,500,000 and Rs 2,000 from units having DCO property value worth Rs 1,500,001-2,600,000. An amount of Rs 700 will be charged from industrial units wroth Rs 60,000-250,000, Rs 1,500 from units worth Rs 250,001-600,000, Rs 2,400 from units worth Rs 600,001-1,000,000, Rs 3,000 from units worth Rs 1,000,001-1,500,000, Rs 4,000 from units worth Rs 1,500,001-2,600,000 and Rs 5,000 from units worth Rs 2,600,001-4,000,000. The plan will enable the LWMC to generate Rs 1.813 billion revenue from 600,051 housing units, Rs 1.629 billion from 117,120 commercial units and Rs 577.7 million from 28,800 industrial units, which make up 80 percent of the total housing, commercial and industrial units. In this connection, The Urban Unit had forwarded the plan to departments and authorities concerned for further procedure. Talking to Daily Times, Spokesperson for The Urban Unit CEO Mamona Bhatti said, “We have prepared the plan and submitted it to the waste management companies. When contacted, Lahore Mayor Colonel (r) Mubashir Javaid told Daily Times that he had been briefed about the plan at a meeting with Khawaja Ahmed Hassan. He, however, said that the proposed plan would not be sent to the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore to seek suggestions. Bhatti said that the plan would be implemented after approval from the authorities concerned. Published in Daily Times, July 31st 2017.